The Value of Heroes
by BAMF Guy
Summary: Heroes are created from many things. They become symbols and emblems, rising above mortal men. But heroes fall, and Slade has found a way to shatter Robin's very sanity. Batman TAS Crossover, Kid Flash and Jericho cameo. Dark.
1. Only A Mask

**Standard Disclaimer: I do not own Batman or Teen Titans, they belong to DC Comics. **

**Story Explanation: In this first chapter I've taken some liberties and thrown in a lot of the conversation from the Batman Animated Series episode "Robin Rising". The point of this is to tweak and twist it to fit the Teen Titans universe in an attempt to explain the events that led to the split up between the Dynamic Duo. So if a lot of it seems familiar, well kids that's why. Anyways enjoy.**

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 1: Only A Mask

"That's all I have to report this month." Robin's voice said from the other end of the communicator. "Robin out."

Batman heard the device click shut and stared out at his city. Things were different now, and perhaps some words can never be taken back. They were both gargoyles these days, hardly saying anything to each other. Looking out over the black, macabre stone buildings that made up his kingdom Batman's memories floated back to years before mad men in costumes and issues of trust had changed things.

Before the shades of gray had seeped into his black and white world.

Half a life time ago when Dick was still mourning the death of his parents, Batman had thrown all other criminals to the wind and hunted one man alone.

-Gotham City-

(7 Years Ago...)

"I was _so _close, Alfred... I could _smell _his sweat. From now on Tony Zucco gets my undivided attention." The Dark Knight had explained to Alfred; justifying it just as much to his butler as to himself. To Batman this was a crusade, a chance to capture a monster who had destroyed a childhood so like his own.

"How fortunate for Zucco." The Englishman retorted his mustache furrowing in slight disgust as he cleared the silverware from his master's place mat. "Because there's a little boy upstairs who's just aching for some of that attention."

"I'm doing this for _him._" Batman said curtly.

"I'm sure revenge can be deliciously sweet; however at the moment what he _needs_ is a friend." Alfred sighed trying to keep his voice gentlemanly in tone. Turning his back on his young master the butler stopped right before he could reach the stairs. Ever patient, ever the voice of reason the elderly man simply added, "Isn't that what you needed, sir?"

Moved by those words Batman decided then to reach out to the boy.

Dick Grayson had looked so small that night, lost in the shadow of such obvious grief. With bright blue eyes full of silent tears the child stared at the pale moon, unaware of Bruce's presence as the man silently entered.

Batman could only ache at the image that silhouetted his own past from so many years prior.

"Hey Dick how you doing?" Bruce asked cheerfully coming up behind him and sitting down on the window sill next to him.

"Fine." The child said quickly wiping his eyes. It was commendable for someone so young to hide his tears not out of foolish pride, but out of the simple want to not force his sorrow on others. Even though he was only a child Dick Grayson was something pretty rare to this world: someone with compassion.

"Sorry I haven't been around lately," Bruce apologized. "I forget how big and lonely this place can be."

"That's okay... I know you're busy." The boy said genuinely flashing the man a weak smile before dropping his gaze back to the floor.

He had remembered Bruce's face in the crowd of onlookers that had been at the circus the night his parents had fell. Just another paying customer, a stranger who had never so much as spoken to Dick before that night. And yet that same man had pulled him away from the swat cars and coroner's van, begging the commissioner to let the boy stay with him rather than have to risk a single night in protective services. Dick Grayson owed this man more thanks than any words or actions could warrant. This stranger had gone out on a limb for him and given him a home when everything else he had ever known or loved managed to crumble at his feet. The last thing the boy wanted to do was make this kind man feel guilty about anything.

Which was why he never once cried around the billionare or the old butler who served him. Instead he saved his tears for the quiet hours of the night, where only the darkness could lay witness to his shattered heart.

But tonight was different.

Staring at the calendar on the wall Dick had realized grimly that one month to the day had passed since his parents had left this world.

And it had finally sunk in that they were not coming back.

The world he knew was gone, replaced by a cold stone one that couldn't compare to the sights and sounds of the circus.

He had never felt so alone in his life.

Although his loneliness was second only to his frustration.

"Dick-" Bruce murmured watching the boy fight a losing battle with the tears welling in his eyes.

"If only I could have stopped him!" The child interrupted his voice a broken retch. "I saw him coming out of the tent," He explained to Bruce, "I _knew_ he didn't belong there!"

"I know." Bruce said softly.

Something in that simple sentence had caused the billionaire's tone to change and now there was a darkness around the normally carefree socialite that hushed Dick into an awed silence.

"You keep thinking if, 'I _only_ I had done something differently." The young executive murmured speaking the words the boy at his side was thinking, "If only I could have... _warned _them.'"

Stunned that his jumbled thoughts had been finished so easily for him Dick could only nod before the large man placed his hands on the boy's shoulders and pulled himself down so they were eye level.

"But there wasn't anything you could have done." Bruce Wayne stated, "There wasn't anything..." Pausing he glanced up at the picture of his parents that hung just above them before finishing, "_E__ither_ of us could have done."

"You mean... _your_ mom and dad too?" Dick stammered his eyes widening in realization that they were exactly the same.

Bruce only nodded staring up at the two people who existed now only in his memory.

"Does the hurt ever go away?" Was all the boy could asked.

"I wish I could say yes." Bruce said quietly. "But it will get better in time for... you, Dick."

Dick let out a sniffle as that simple sentence crippled whatever sliver of self control he had left. There was such kindness in those words even if it was all a lie. The tears leaked out of his eyes and he couldn't stop them. Running forward his small arms flung around Bruce's neck.

"That I promise." Batman said clutching the boy's head in his hand. Though he barely knew the child his heart ached with a new conviction that radiated through Bruce's bones. "It will get better for _you_." He vowed.

Though he wasn't always good at showing it, Dick Grayson meant everything to Batman. The boy was his one tie to being human. There was something in his life that gave him more meaning than justice, and the endless quest for protecting the innocent. But that caused tensions, even early on in their partnership. It was a thin line between being a overprotective father and a rigid boss. Their relationship had so many conflicting aspects to it, that the older Robin got the harder it was to distinguish the black and white lines.

And then everything had changed after _that_ one night.

The night that the man Batman had spent nearly five years trying to find was finally uncovered.

Only Robin found him first.

-Gotham City-

(3 Years Ago)

... ... ...

"ROBIN, DON'T!"

That night Batman's stern voice had rung out like a street siren, momentarily halting the Boy Wonder as he stared down at his victim. Normally hearing Bruce cry out in worry and fear like that would have shocked Robin stupid, but he was too angry to listen now. He laid one last punch and stopped to get a good look at the thug underneath him. The man's nose was broken, several of his teeth scattered out on the cement. He'd need about twenty stitches on his face alone and Robin was just getting started. It was weird to feel such sick satisfaction in watching a man wriggle like a worm. This wasn't a super villain, this wasn't even a gang lord. No to the superhero community this man was small time. He was the kind of two bit hood that barely warranted a second glance before round housing him into the side of a building.

But you didn't have to be big time if your name was Tony Zucco. That alone was enough for Robin.

Zucco had disappeared from Gotham before Robin had ever even been created, and without a trace. But roaches always crawl back to their nests. Batman had managed to keep his return to Gotham from Robin for nearly three months, but even the greatest detective on earth couldn't keep it a secret forever.

"Zucco." Robin hissed, the very word sending rage up his spine. "You're not getting away this time." Trying to laugh through his swollen, black lips Zucco managed to get his head up off the pavement. "You've got nothing on me Bird-boy, do your worst. I'll be back on the streets in 24 hours."

"Shut up." Robin said dangerously as his bo-staff pressed harder and harder against the crook's throat, so close to cracking open the man's windpipe he could hear the muscles tighten like guitar strings ready to snap. "Who said anything about prison?" Leaning closer he breathed. "You and I have a score to settle." Eyes narrowing into slits he added, "Prison is the least of your worries."

_You're not so tough anymore, are you? _Robin thought, anger seeping through every inch of his soul. Staring at the man who murdered his parents, stole his dreams of a normal life, and ended his childhood that day Robin was almost disappointed. In his nightmares, this thing had been so much scarier.

_Now look at you._

_You're pathetic._

His thoughts were stripped from him when a pair of black, gloved hands lifted Robin up off the bloodied thug.

"Robin stop." Batman breathed his voice hushed. "It won't bring them back."

"Save me the self righteous lectures!" Robin snarled throwing Batman's hand off his shoulder. It was juvenile and he knew it only added flame to the convictions Batman had about him, but he couldn't stop the words from flying out,"You lied to me, you betrayed me. Zucco is mine! I've waited half my life for this!"

Batman took his friend's insults silently and waited for him to finish his stone cold demeanor never changing.

Taking deep, jagged breaths Robin stared at the cement. "Che. Don't give me that bullshit like you were protecting me, _partner._ I'm not a child. You just couldn't trust me, you're still treating me like I'm a liability."

"Can you trust yourself right now?" Batman asked gently. "Beating a unarmed man within a inch of life isn't justice, Robin. It's vengeance. If you give in to that, you're no better than he is."

Biting back whatever else he was going to say, Robin was stung by the truth in those words.

"Let the authorities take it from here." Batman pleaded softly. "You don't want to do this, Robin."

Backing away the boy clenched his fists.

He could stand it when Bruce was a cold, unfeeling monster. But not when he was like this.

Batman's voice was so full of sympathy, full of sorrow.

And Robin hated being pitied almost as much as he hated being wrong.

"... You had no right to keep this from me, Batman." Robin quivered.

Batman didn't answer, instead taking that moment to throw a well place batarang a inch away from the thug, who was trying to make a escape while the boy wonder raged. "Stay there Zucco." The Bat ordered. His voice was slow, concise making sure Zucco understood every syllable of his threat would be carried out into hard reality if disobeyed. "Or else I'll be very... VERY, _grumpy_." Eyes narrowing he added, "You wouldn't like me when I'm _grumpy_."

Shaking in fear the crook was too frightened to move even if he had wanted. That sentence had turned his feet to stone.

"After all these years you still don't trust me, do you?" Robin muttered putting his staff away.

"You don't understand, Robin." Batman said quietly. "Zucco...-"

Whatever more the Dark Knight had wanted to say was cut off by the blare of sirens. Blinding light shattered the darkness as twelve or more swat cars entered the scene.

"Get this man to the hospital, Detective." Robin said to Harvey Bullock as soon as the fat man stepped out of his car. "We're finished here."

And those were the last real words either the Dark Knight or the Boy Wonder had spoken to each other since.

-Titans Tower-

(Present Day)

Hanging his head, Robin's hand tightened on the bat shaped communicator. "I'm sorry," He said to the turned off device. Sitting down on the roof of Titan's Tower, the Boy Wonder stared up at the moon. He wished he could be strong enough to say that when it counted. Robin had been too proud to admit that he had been totally out of control the night he and Batman split ways. If he had been left to his own devices, he would have killed Tony Zucco. Batman didn't understand that he had left Gotham not because he was angry with the Dark Knight anymore, but because he needed to be stronger. That night had scared him bad. He didn't want to be a hypocrite or a murder. So he left his best friend and mentor, and everything that tied him to Bruce. He came to the realization that in order to become stronger he needed to get out of the Batman's shadow.

He had let Batman down utterly that time.

From now on he needed to be more than human. If he never had to stop, never had to show weakness he could be the most effiicent crimefighter. So that's what he became. As a Titan, he could fight along side people with remarkable powers and skills that Robin himself could never possess.

As long as he could detach himself from being human, the Teen Titans would have the edge and confidence to know that a mission would never be compromised as long as he led.

He had failed someone once. He would never do that again.

Weakness was not acceptable to him.

So he gave it up. He abandoned his life as Dick Grayson and with that his ties to Bruce Wayne. As long as he was human, he was weak and vulnerable to things like revenge and hatred. So Dick Grayson became the mask that he hid in his drawer.

Three years ago he had made a oath when he joined the Titans. That he would be more than a person, he would be a symbol.

From now on he would only be Robin, he would only be the mask.

That was the value of a hero. And sometimes it was a hard price to pay.

To be continued...


	2. Ghosts

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 2: Ghosts

-Gotham City-

_Yakkity yak yak. _

_No wonder this buffoon is constantly getting his tights stomped by **teenagers**._

Rolling his eyes the Joker made himself content to poke the broken contents of what once was a birdarang around on the table with his thumb while the masked man next to him continued.

"I normally don't venture into Gotham. This city's spoils just don't suit my general _interests_." Slade said casually. The lunatic to the right of him wasn't listening, and that was dangerous. But for now he kept his tone gentlemanly; after all there was still some honor among thieves and certain protocols to follow even in the super villain community.

"But then I came across something _special._"

"No, I'm sure Gotham doesn't normally cater to a man with your _tastes_. We're pretty short on ample young kids in tights these days." Joker grinned looking Slade over in a way that made even the skilled villain flush in disgust. "On that note, how _is_ the Boy Blunder? Old enough to shave yet?" He asked letting out a high pitched laugh.

Normally to make a statement like that would been a death sentence, but Slade knew better than to use force just yet. Underneath the Joker's slim and almost comical appearance was one of the most twisted men the world had to offer. A person with a mind so deranged even the Batman spent sleepless nights in fear of it.

And Slade hadn't gotten where he was by letting the rantings of mad clowns get under his skin.

"Just kidding. You're such a good sport Slade, for a man that looks like he gets dressed in the dark." The Joker beamed glancing back up at the projector. "But whoopee, dandy, huzzah!" The Clown Prince exclaimed practically ballooning out of his chair as Slade finally shut up long enough for him to say what he had wanted to for the last twenty minutes. "It's a can."

"It's a _neurotoxin_." Slade corrected. "Created by the government for integration purposes. But it's potential isn't being used to its full capacity." His mouth curling into grin he clarified. "Especially where fields of manipulation are concerned."

"Meaning...?" Joker yawned bringing a gloved hand up to indulge in a large, fake yawn.

"Meaning," Slade answered, "That this is something unique. We're looking at a toxin that is virtually untraceable. Like a living disease it spreads through a infected target's system, and by sending electronic impulses through the synopsis it slowly destroys the mind. By mimicking symptoms like a cold it makes treatment of the virus nearly impossible unless you know _exactly_ what you're looking for. "

"Go on Professor Science, I was _almost_ interested there." Joker retorted slumping back in his chair.

The masked assassin paid the clown no mind as he continued, "After a few hour of administration this plague will immobilize the victim and cut off all it's internal control before it simply hijacks their mental functions. A toxin like this can be used to simply wipe away a individual's memory, leaving them a blank slate. Or with a little mental _persuasion_ you can force a victim to '_choose_' your way. All this potential and all the government wants to use it as is a new kind of truth serum."

"Leave it to Uncle Sam to create something like that." Joker mused rocking back and forth in his chair with childish enthusiasm, "And I'm supposed to be the crazy one, HAHAHAAAA. So what do you call that little miracle pill?"

"Cybernetic Plague 9." Slade answered plainly.

Joker put a hand on his long, pointed chin and thought for a moment before he simply shrugged it off, "But this really isn't my kind of thing, Slade. This is something more for Lex Luthor, or for the super villain on a budget the Mad Hatter even. Y'see I'm not out to control the masses. I'm simple man, who likes his simple things. Like the good old classics like: bombs, gas, and rubber chickens and that's good enough for old Joker."

"You're right. You're not a man out for world domination and I don't much like teamwork. But this requires planning on both cities playing fields and luck favors the prepared." Slade breathed his eyes narrowing with greed and dark desire. "C'mon Joker, you wouldn't be here if you weren't a little curious maybe even interested now would you? And just think, in the event that CP9 is effectively mixed with your calling card the effects of your laughing gas would be irreversible. Even for Batman. That alone must hold some worth to you."

That sparked the Joker's interest, Slade could see it in his eyes.

"Imagine," He continued. "A city of madmen... all doomed because of a hero who failed to save them."

It took a small moment of thought before a twisted red grin slowly grew on Joker's pale face. "You know, Slade. I like you." The Clown Prince of Gotham chuckled. "You have style." The grin lengthening into a full blown laugh he added, "Not as much as me, but you can't have everything."

"And all I ask for in return is a little help along the way," Slade reasoned, "Together we'll destroy the only two things Batman cares about. His city and his little red robin."

Crossing his arms Joker scoffed, "You hide it so well behind that mask, but Robin seems to be a topic of interest for you. HEEHEEE." Getting a little serious he squinted his face. "Not that whacking off the younger side of the Dynamic Duo won't have its kicks but c'mon Slade: one nut to another. Why do you want Bat Jr anyway?"

"I'd think it was obvious. Immortality. I want a shell to mold into my image, and a legacy to leave behind." Slade answered cryptically before he added, "Besides I don't like losing anymore than you do."

"Y'know I find hobbies can be useful in keeping one's sanity. I'm a nut for macrame myself!" The clown said flatly picking some lint off his purple jacket before he asked, "So let's see if I follow: you want to erase his memories using this over guarded coffee can? That's a little cliché, you'd think we were Saturday morning cartoon villains."

Bird Boy had quite a stalker on his hands.

"That wouldn't destroy the Batman, nor would it diminish the flicker of hope from the Titans that he could be saved." Slade retorted. "Experience has taught me that the only way to win Robin to my side is to twist everything that he is. With that in mind when I'm done crushing the fabric of his mind the masterpiece I will create will be something to stand in awe of. You could say I plan on murdering the very idea of a hero."

"You realize you're loony, don't you?" Joker smirked. "But don't worry, I won't hold it against you." He jumped up barreling forward and putting an arm around the black and orange clad assassin. "AH!" The clown exclaimed in a sing song voice, "This could be the start of something _beautiful_ as long as you don't keep getting sappy on me."

"The neurotoxin is only the first step. I'll be in touch when the timing is right." Smiling Slade added, "But before we get too ahead of ourselves, tell me Joker. Do you like the circus?"

-Jump City-

"_Not this time, scum! You can't escape from the Gray Ghost." _

The old cheesy music queued and the villainous man on the other side of the television screen was thrown out the window.

"Dude, what is this stuff?" Beast Boy asked staring at the TV. "This is so lame." He scoffed lifting the remote control up to change the channel. He had been awake all night playing the new Mega Monkeys 5, and had come to the conclusion that it was easier to stay up all night then go to bed late and wake up early. Glancing at the clock he realized it was already 5am.

"Is this the Gray Ghost?" A voice asked. Standing in the hallway Robin was up with the birds as usual.

"Heck if I know." Beast Boy snorted. "It's just that old rerun junk from the Stone Age they put on before the news anyways."

"No, leave it here for just a second." Robin said putting a hand on the remote Beast Boy was holding. "Please."

Blinking BB was dumbfounded as he watched Robin settle down next to him and stare at the TV. He was smiling in a way that Beast Boy had never seen on the Boy Wonder. His black mask hid the expression on his eyes but he was filled with a child like sort of amusement that the changeling would have thought dead to their fearless leader.

"It's a little weird seeing you geeking out over a old show." Beast Boy laughed.

"Man they don't make them like that anymore." Robin grinned glancing at his friend.

"No joke, thank god." Beast Boy retorted although he was finding Robin's enthusiasm contagious. "This show was probably made before Mad Mod was born."

"It's _not_ that old." Robin laughed. "It's something I grew up with." He said fondly. Bruce loved the Gray Ghost probably as much as Control Freak loved his stacks of comic books. When he had been littler it was a old past time of theirs to watch the show together, like a father and son. It was one of the few things that didn't involve beating people senseless that he had shared with Bruce. Smiling Robin murmured, "Although, I never loved this show as much as he did."

"As much as _who_ did?" Beast Boy asked curiously. It wasn't like Robin to open up about this kind of stuff.

So much for acting his age. Like coming out of a trance, Robin stiffened and snapped out it. "Nobody." He said coldly returning to his normally callous stance. "You should get ready." The leader of the Titans ordered. "We have a scheduled training session in less than an hour."

"Glad to see you're back to being chipper." Beast Boy muttered disgruntled once Robin was out of the room.

To be continued...


	3. Things That Go Up

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 3: Things that Go Up

For a moment Robin was almost flying.

There was that half second when he looked out at the cliff drop, past the crashing ocean spray on the jagged rocks below him and felt like Superman himself. Then Robin descended face first, his arms outstretched as if he were really about to fly. Closing his eyes the boy suddenly locked his arms to his sides and straightened his body in a streamline causing his speed to the ground to nearly double. Arching his back Robin let the velocity of his fall push his body into a somersault so that he could use his legs as a spring against the stony wall right before he hit the bottom. The result was more effective than anything a trampoline could have done. Spiraling back upward his hand outreached for the cliff's edge.

_Almost. Almost there._

His gloved hands shot forward, every muscle in his arm extending with the realization that even a centimeter more leverage could mean the difference between life and death. He felt the crude slam of earth against his fingers and then in a instant it was gone.

He had missed.

The sick sensation of his heart sinking into his stomach raced into his gut.

He was falling again.

Experiment over.

Pulling his grappling hook out of his belt he shot and fired. It embedded itself into the cliff side and within a matter of seconds Robin was back on solid ground.

"... pfft." His mouth was full of the bitter and almost rancid flavor of frustration. Robin's body had time and time again gone past its limit for him, but instead of thanking it he only pushed it farther. Muscles already aching from the strain he had put on them the normally callous boy scout took a deep breath and dropped a small four letter insult at the situation before Starfire was able to fly to his side.

"Do not be saddened, Robin. It was almost a victory." Starfire beamed.

"Almost a victory is still losing." Robin said matter of factly, although he forced a smile. "But thanks."

"It's a 50 foot drop, Rob." Cyborg said following suit as the other Titans made their way back to their leader. "I don't see why your beating yourself up for not being able to clear it with a bunch of circus leaps. If a grappling hook works, why teach the dog a new trick?"

Robin ignored the harmless reference to circus leaps and shrugged. "It's normal to set personal goals, isn't it?"

"Flinging yourself off a cliff isn't really normal." Beast Boy said flatly.

The dark empath beside him added casually despite her monotone, "Well c'mon who wants to be normal when you can just be the obsessive compulsive type?"

"Hardy har har." Robin replied to the three. "I get it. Point taken."

"Aw we'll still love you even if you can't turn yourself into a human cannonball." Cyborg grinned jabbing his friend in the rib. "Now can we go home? We've been training for nearly six hours. All work and no play makes Cyborg a dull boy."

"Yeah." Robin said finding his larger friend's grin contagious. "We still need to update the files on the decommissioned members of the Brotherhood of Evil anyways."

Whirling to face their leader not even Raven managed to hide the loud groan that emerged from that comment. He bathed in their discontent only for a moment or two. Smiling playfully the the Boy Wonder put his hands behind his head and strolled a few feet forward. "Jeez it was a joke. You guys need to lighten up."

It took a few seconds for that to sink in. Laughing Beast Boy put his hands to his stomach, "That's a good one Robin. You really had me fooled for a second."

His masked eyes slitted with cat like amusement Robin gave his friends a soft smile. "Anyone up for Chinese, I'll buy?"

"Of yes," Starfire exclaimed. "I will have the curry! It goes most well with the motor grease and the graham crackers!"

"Sounds great, Star." Robin replied with a forced smile to mask the nausea.

Robin had changed a lot since Slade's disappearance after the rebirth of Trigon. The normally broody, callous, prodigy to the greatest detective alive had been replaced with a more patient and open version of the original. The best part was Robin seemed to be honestly trying to be less megalomaniacal about things. His friends had noticed the significant attempt. He could still be a jerk on occasions and the _'making sure that justice was served no matter what the cost'_ thing was a hard one to completely beat out. But there were subtle changes here and there. Robin had done them wrong in the past, but he was the kind of guy that's reasons made it hard to stay mad at.

The kid was just too compassionate. And he was the ultimate self sacrificer. The Teen Wonder had made that obvious time and time again, putting himself in harm's way and stubbornly refusing to give up on them despite the odds. He was someone who would just as easily throw away his own safety and his own personal goals for them at the drop of the hat.

Even when he was being selfish it seemed some part of him had their interests in mind.

It was his greatest crutch but it was also his driving force too. All the Titans respected him and loved him for it and at the same time wanted to bludgeon him because of it. It was nice to know that someone cared for them to the extent the Boy Wonder did. He was each Titan's best friend. But no one liked being kept out of the circle of trust, even if it was for their own good. Lying to them hadn't been a good thing either.

But people can change. Robin was changing. So the Titans were changing.

Getting back to the Tower, it was good to have it deader than usual. Since the Brotherhood of Evil had been stopped their little group had expanded from 5 members to more than 20. Most of the honorary Titans didn't stay for too long, but a few of made themselves more at home than others. Case in point was the red and yellow walking stick that was sprawled out on their couch.

"I'm thinking of having the security code changed." Robin said sarcastically as he and the rest of the team walked into the living room. "Or maybe I'll just start charging you rent."

"That hurts man. And here we're almost two of a kind. You've put up with Batman almost as long as I've put up with Flash. Oh and your cd collection sucks by the way, Boy Wonder." Kid Flash retorted flashing him a smile before flinging a silver disc at him. "This one's my favorite. PU with a capital stink."

Catching the disc easily between two fingers Robin flushed as he read the title off the cd. "This one was a _gift." _It was a lousy defense but a valid one. Alfred never could follow music trends.

"Man move your twiggy ass over, KF." Cyborg sighed as he and Beast Boy pushed past the two. "AW, MAN! Tell me that's NOT your underwear on my leather sofa?" He asked pointing to the white briefs that were slung on the couch's backboard.

"Ask me no secrets and I'll tell you no lies." Kid Flash said with a charming smile. "I got bored waiting for you, so I took a shower and changed. I'm supposed to meet Jinx later anyways."

"Yuck. Ever heard of a hamper?" Raven asked dully.

"Sure. Ever heard of sunlight?" Flash retorted raspberrying her for good measure.

"Alright, alright." Robin coughed taking his role as leader. "Kid Flash, do something with your underwear. I'll call the restaurant. What do you guys want?"

In a blur of speed the breeches disappeared and Flash threw a arm around Robin's neck. "I'll come with. You could use the help."

"Uh, I'm ordering take out not deactivating a bomb." Robin reasoned flatly.

"Humor me." Kid Flash mused following Robin out of the room. "I do speak Cantonese you know." Once they were out of ear range the red haired boy grabbed Robin's shoulder. "We need to talk."

"About what?" Robin asked curiously. It was kind of obvious. Kid Flash was not what one would call subtle about things.

"I'm sure you've guessed but as much as I love the sunshine you Titans brings me, I'm also playing errand boy today." Kid Flash answered holding out a letter. "The red traffic light had some business in Gotham yesterday, and Batman asked me to give this to you." His lips curling into a grin he read the name scribbled on the card, "_Dicky."_

"Shove it, Wally." Robin said flatly. Being some of the youngest superheroes in the business at the beginning, Kid Flash and Robin had interacted a lot over the years. And they knew a lot more about each other than Robin would have wanted actually. "It's just Robin these days." He said defensively.

"Hey, I'm not the one who wrote it." Flash shrugged.

"Neither did Bruce or Alfred." Robin said glancing at the writing. They would never call him "Dicky". Now his curiosity was doubled.

He slit the envelope with his thumb and pulled the piece of paper out in front of him. Making sure it was still folded over he turned to the second pair of eyes staring at it.

"Do you mind?" He asked Kid Flash.

"Hehehe, sorry." The boy next to him flushed backing away a few inches.

Keeping a watch on his super fast friend out of the corner of his eye, Robin flipped the letter open and read its contents.

_Dicky,_

_It's only when you've reached this age that you start to realize that there never seems to be enough time to do what one has to. I wish I could have been able to see the man you'll become... I wish I could have done more for you. _

_My boy, our world's light dimmed on the day we let you go. Without you and your parents to fly in it the old tent somehow just feels empty now._

_I can't take back the wasted days gone past... but I wanted to give you something you could take with you into your future._

_Now I'm sure you're busy but if you get the chance, come visit. We miss you lad. _

_John Haley _

He stared at the contents included in the letter, enclosed in his hand was a small admit one ticket. Robin could only eye it in silence.

"You okay man?" Kid Flash asked seeing the change in the Teen Wonder's demeanor.

"It sounds like a goodbye letter." Robin said solemnly. Glancing momentarily at Flash he tried to keep his voice steady. People who weren't raised in the entertainment world like he was just couldn't understand the length's show biz folk went to to avoid superstitions and bad luck.

"It must be something important for him to send me this... Mr. Haley _really_ hates goodbyes." His eyes burning through the mask, Robin just couldn't understand it. "He always said goodbyes were like final curtain calls," Forcing a weak laugh he added, "And that the best way to live a long life was to avoid both."

To be continued...


	4. Not All Cages Have Bars

**Author's Rantings: Readers, if you've come this far you'll notice that I'm going bring Jericho into the batch. I really liked what the Teen Titans series did with his character, even though he barely got any screen time. And for those of you who don't read the comics, in the paper version of T.T. Jericho is Slade's son. The TV series of Teen Titans though has never brought up whether or not they're related. Personally I think the TV show decided to just give Jericho his own separate identity free of anything Slade related. While I might go into that more as the story develops for the moment I'm not going to validate or disprove the fact that they might be father/son. I'll just leave the fine print up to you readers. Um also... I personally haven't seen all of Season 5 but from all the episodes that do involve Jericho he can talk but only does it rare doses. It's the only reasonable explanation I have as to why he blew his cover while possessing Cinderblock... since you'd otherwise think a mute would know when to shut up. That said it IS established canon that he _was_ a mute in the original Titans comics, but again I just don't know if the TV Titans decided to go there since Slade played a BIG part in that. So... for easy storytelling's sake and the fact that things would be too hard to write otherwise, my Joey may be a little inaccurate. **

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 4: Not All Cages Have Bars

Jericho couldn't remember how long he had been down there.

But then... he was probably better off not knowing.

At this point he couldn't even tell if it was daytime or night.

Raising his head the boy hoped to tilt it high enough to see the small factory windows several yards above him, but only succeeded in causing a radiating shot of pain to burn down his face. His right eye was swollen shut from the last beating he had endured and the left one kept getting dried blood in it. The boy had never wanted the use of his arms so badly in his life, if just to wipe the blood off. But no, his arms were bound tightly behind him and he could barely move.

If only a rat, a flea, hell even a worm would pass by he could free himself from this hell. But the person who had imprisoned him knew better. And Jericho knew from that alone that his situation was hopeless. For now he'd just have sit back and wait to find out what the mad man wanted.

Strangely enough he didn't have to wait long.

"Hello Joey." A voice practically purred as a tall man in black and orange emerged out of the darkness. "Enjoying your stay?"

Jericho's good eye narrowed in disgust as the assassin took a rough hold of his blond curls and forced him to his feet.

"Is that a no?" Slade asked looking down at the tiny feminine boy's face as it tightened in pain. But the boy gave him no answer.

"It's bad manners not to answer someone when they're talking to you." Slade hissed bringing his knee up into the boy's rib cage. The cherub like form of the child would have crumpled if Slade hadn't been still firmly holding his hair.

Coughing, wheezing the boy fought with his own body and forced it back on its feet. He didn't answer Slade. Instead the boy only seethed at the villain in silent rage, not bothering to give Slade the satisfaction of hearing him cry out in pain.

Releasing him and shoving the kid back to the ground the mercenary didn't hide his amusement. "You never were much for chit chat, were you Jericho?" Moving to the wall he grinned. "That's all right, I'll talk. You listen." Sitting down on a old table in a business like manner he simply stated, "I want you to do a little job for me."

Raising his head up Jericho's green eyes were on fire, every cell in his body enraged at that stupid sentence. The most appropriate answer he could come up with landed in the form of a well placed pool of spit that splattered at the villain's feet.

"Are you sure you want to say no just yet?" Slade asked. "Because I have a little leverage you might to know about before you decide."

Cocking his good eye in slight confusion Joey wanted to be tough but there was something in the way Slade said that that made Jericho's blood run cold.

The doors opened and several tall, looming Slade bots made their way towards their master. In one of their arms was a small mass of white curls and pink soft flesh. It was a child... a little girl probably no older the six.

"How long has it been since you've seen your little sister, Joey?" Came the single taunt.

Idly grasping the strands of the girl's white hair the assassin breathed, "She's gotten much bigger hasn't she? Ah, but then they grow up so fast." Good eye narrowing as he read the emotions strewn on the boy's face Slade's voice was so gentle it was insulting, "Have you visited her since you gave her to the orphanage, Joey? Or were you too afraid that if people knew she was related to a monster like you that she'd never have a chance at a normal life."

The boy seemed rigid and displaced for a few seconds as the shock of everything rendered him senseless. Swallowing he tried to clear the stone that seemed wedged in his throat.

_Rose._

_My... Rose?_

_Why...?_

Jericho's mind screamed the word, but his mouth just couldn't utter it.

Hanging his head in frustration the boy choked back an angry sob.

No one was supposed to know.

Their family was cursed to be nothing but monsters, and Jericho had been too monsterous even for them. But he had saved Rose from the fate of ever knowing their real family.

No good would ever come of Rose being near people like that.

So he gave her away.

He hid her as far away from himself and his monsterous family as he could manage. Joey had stayed away from her almost all her life so he could protect her. So she could have a family and find love. There was no way he could ever be adopted into a family with his strange powers. Even most meta humans were afraid of someone with abilities like his. That's why he lived where he did.

But Rose had a chance at a normal life so long as no one was supposed to know.

His breath was getting heavy as Slade waited patiently for him to take in the situation.

_ Maybe it was a trick... Slade was a bastard, he could have easily..._

No. Joey knew that was the real thing. Because the little girl in the robot's arms let out a soft moan, her white hair falling in beautiful curls around her face as she slept.

The same curls he had.

"She's only sleeping now. But she needs your help in protecting that situation after wards. I'm playing a dangerous game this time, Joey. And if we're both not careful... Rose could get hurt in the crossfire." The assassin breathed.

"... ... w-why... ...?" Jericho repeated his strange voice fading in and out like the wind itself.

"Because you're special. And your powers are a part of my plan. Like it or not Joey, the three of us have a relationship." Slade said matter of factly. "And as long as you're a good boy and do what you're told, all three of us will be around to continue that relationship."

Jericho stared at Rose for a few seconds before he bit back the last shattered pieces of his pride and nodded.

"It will only be for a little while. And no one will get hurt when it's all over." Slade said.

Again Jericho could only nod. What would the Titans think of him now... bowing to this bastard? Glancing at the little girl in the robot's arms it was no good to run now. With the robots, he had a vessel to escape in, a way out. But he couldn't chance it.

"I'll... I'll do whatever you say." He whispered his weak ethereal like voice full of grief. The first full sentence he had spoken in weeks. He only wished it was under happier circumstances.

"That's a good boy." Slade mused.

-Jump City-

"Dude are you going to order or what?" Beast Boy asked popping his head in the doorway. "KF could have jogged to China by now."

"Sorry, Beast Boy you guys go on ahead and eat without me." Robin answered with a apologetic smile. "It's still my treat."

"Where you going?" The green changeling said his voice high in annoyance. "We just got back!"

Robin could understand his feelings. It had been months since they had actually been back in Jump City and it felt like lifetimes since they had all been together as a team. The Brotherhood of Evil had reduced the Teen Titans to running solo missions for so long, it was no wonder Beast Boy wasn't too eager at splitting the team up again. But he didn't have a choice. Walking down the hallway the Titans leader simply replied, "I need to visit a old friend."

"Then I'll get the others." Beast Boy grinned pushing the silent issue even further. "We can get a doggy bag on the way-"

"No." Robin said firmly. "I'm going alone."

"Ugh, at least tell us where your going then." Beast Boy muttered fed up with his leader's attitude. "Since you obviously still can't trust us."

"It's not like that, Beast Boy." Kid Flash said sharply but Robin held up a hand to stop him interfering.

"Gotham." He replied meeting his friend's gaze.

"Does Batman need your help?" The changeling gawked his disposition changing from annoyed to awed. Maybe he'd finally get the chance to meet the coolest superhero alive!

"No." Robin said shaking his head.

"Well if it's not Batman, why do you need to go alone?" Beast Boy asked. Taking in a deep sigh Robin walked back to his friend and put a hand on his shoulder. "The person who wrote me this letter would never do so unless it was really important. So I'm not going alone because I don't trust you guys. But if I show up to see this person with my friends in tow, it'd be disrespectful. That's why I have to do this by myself. Please understand."

"You're really choked up about this huh?" Beast Boy stated.

Robin nodded softly.

"I'm sorry Robin, I was being a big stupid-." Beast Boy murmured suddenly feeling like an ass.

"You don't have to apologize for anything." Robin grinned patting Beast Boy's shoulder. "I'll see you guys in a day or two."

Watching the Boy Wonder leave Kid Flash shook his head, "Robin's a sap."

"What makes you think that?" Beast Boy asked glancing at the taller boy.

"He couldn't take you guys with him because he's not going as Robin." Kid Flash replied.

"Oh." Beast Boy said flatly. "Why didn't he just say so?"

Scratching his nose Kid Flash shrugged, "Because he thinks he has to protect you guys. He doesn't think it's fair that he can just take off his mask and the rest of you guys can't." Seeing he wasn't being very helpful as a honorary Titan he added, "Or maybe because he's got a stupid real name. Take your pick, the laundry list is long and I'm just saying."

"Wait." Beast Boy exclaimed, "You _know_ Robin's secret identity?" Suddenly he felt short changed. He thought he and the rest of the Titans were a lot closer to Robin than someone like KF. It didn't seem fair that they didn't know squat about him.

"Yeah I know his name." Turning to the green changeling the older boy smiled. "But he gave that all up." Looking out into the hallway to where the others were he added, "He's not like the rest of you. If you take off his mask, he's just like everybody else. But he'd rather be Robin. He'd rather be a Titan."

Smiling Beast Boy suddenly felt the same way Kid Flash did.

"You're right." He chuckled. "Robin _is_ a sap."

To be continued...


	5. A Kiss Under the Big Top

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 5: A Kiss Under the Big Top

-Gotham Fairgrounds-

It was barely autumn in Gotham City but it was freezing outside. The wind raced across the gray sky, kicking up dead leaves and whipping against the now skeletal trees. It caused a sound that seemed somewhat like a moan, and the boy standing on the street couldn't help think it seemed almost as if the trees were mourning something. Everything seemed so devoid of color. Instead of warmth, there was only stone and steel. Pulling his jacket closer to him Dick Grayson tried to mask his shivers. He had gotten too used to Jump City's coastal climate.

But he was home.

He kept walking down the stone paved street that led into the Gotham fairgrounds, despite how much he wanted to fidget with his pants. Thank god his motorcycle jacket hid the rest of his top half, he bet he looked so much like a geek underneath it he'd want to kick his own ass if given the chance. Barely anything had fit him when he tried on his old clothes for the first time in years. The only thing he could salvage into a outfit had been a pair of jeans he had stolen from Bruce ages ago and one of the old black t-shirts he had worn under his uniform at Gotham Prep. Both of which were still more than a little tight everywhere it mattered. Sighing he ran a hand through his black mass of hair and stared out at the pathway.

He'd just have to put up with it. Dicky didn't need a new wardrobe since he wouldn't be around for much longer. Robin was just going to wear his Dick Grayson suit long enough to do what he needed to

Haley Circus was smaller than he remembered it. But when you're a kid, everything seems gigantic.

"C'mon folks, step up and see the sideshow before you enter the main tent! Only four tickets a head! Step right up!" A announcer shouted from his podium.

Hands in his pockets Dick walked slowly taking in every step. His chest tightened with a mix of happiness and sad regret for what might have been. He wasn't a part of this world anymore, and it was clear to see that this world was just fine without him. Each familiar face he ran into simply passed by him, but he cataloged each of them visually and smiled at the memories that came with each face.

Running around by the bear cages was Slim the clown. He was bald now, and had gained about twenty pounds. So much for the _slim _part.

"Cotton candy here!" Another vendor called.

"Try your luck, three balls a ticket. Win a bear for your mom!"

"HEADS UP KID!"

Blinking Dick realized he should have paid more attention to that last one. Blue eyes darting up above him, he only had a second to react to the girl who was plummeting towards him.

So was the ladder and the paint she had been working with.

Springing forward he was able to catch the girl before she hit the ground but he hadn't been quick enough on his feet to avoid the paint or the ladder.

_THUNK..._

"Ouch."

He only caught the side of the ladder, and while it stung a little it was a love tap compared to the things that were normally thrown at him on a daily basis. Still he didn't mind the bruising half as much as the can of blue paint that was now splattered all over his hair, face and lap.

The girl in his arms didn't look too much better as far as the paint was considered.

"Are you alright, uh miss?" He asked since the girl in his arms was still clung to him like a vice. Blushing he suddenly realized she had larger... well, what she had wasn't really something girls had... this was a full grown woman pressed against him.

"Y..yeah, I'm okay." The woman's voice squeaked from inside his arms.

Then it hit her like another ladder.

"Hey, you ain't gonna sue us, are you kid?" The woman asked pulling her head out of Dick's shoulder and getting a good look at him. In a instant she had pushed herself off of him and started ranting, "Cuz I tried to warn ya, and it's your own fault for pushing the heroics! I never asked ya to help me! So if your mom asks, it's your fault too-"

"You're welcome." Robin said flatly, getting to his feet and shaking the dust off his clothes. He should have known something like this was bound to happen.

He stared at her in disdain as she continued to rant at him. There was something about this woman that was awfully familiar but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. It was a shame though. As much as he already didn't like her personality, she was a quite a looker. Tall, statuesque and the lady had a body that downright rivaled Poison Ivy's. Not to mention those blue eyes and a dimpled smile. Somehow though the hair didn't quite seem right. The black hair, half covered in paint didn't really seem to fit. He could of swore he'd seen this woman before. But while he was pondering where the hell he had seen her, she seemed to be wondering the same thing.

"...H...hey, wait a sec. I know those eyes." The woman exclaimed her blue eyes widening as she stopped yelling at him mid-syllable. "Dicky? Dicky Grayson!"

"Y...yeah." Dick drawled cocking a eyebrow in surprise as he tried to place her in his head.

"Dick! Oh holy cow, Mr. Haley will platz when he sees you!" The woman exclaimed suddenly coming forward and wrapping him in a bear hug. Groaning he couldn't breathe. Crap she was going to break his ribs, or he was going to be smothered by those breasts. It would have been a nice way to go, if he hadn't almost felt like she was _trying_ to make him uncomfortable. Something in those eyes just didn't seem nice.

"Who... are... you?" He asked in between gasps for air.

"It's me. It's Connie!" The woman beamed letting him go and smiling. "Connie Wilhelm."

"Boom... Boom?" Dick asked blinking before it all came back to him. No wonder she had looked familiar. The aerial cannonball artists Boom Boom and Gun Powder aka Connie and Peter Wilhelm had been traveling with Haley's circus almost as long as the Flying Graysons had. They were another old circus family.

"I haven't seen you since you were just a runt!" Connie exclaimed. "You barely came up to my knee!"

"I remember you looking different though." Dick said honestly looking over the woman. "Didn't you used to have freckles, Connie?"

"Oh, eh uh." The woman stammered before she grinned, "Ain't puberty grand." Putting a hand on her hip she sighed, "It fixes all life's little problems for two seconds then replaces em with a brand new set."

"Uh yeah..." Dick nodded scratching his chin. Wow Connie wasn't as modest as she used to be. Then again he hadn't seen her since she had been thirteen years old. That was practically another lifetime ago for the both of them. It's not like he could expect her to stay the same.

This place had changed whether he liked or it not.

Still... something at the back of his head tickled.

This just felt weird.

But before he could dive into his normal detective tendencies the girl slapped him on the back as hard as she could, abruptly bringing him out of his thoughts.

"Sorry for all that back there." Connie said with a grin. "I didn't recognize you. You sure got big Dick. How old are you now, 12? 13?"

"_16_." Dick said insulted. Suddenly he was self conscious. He knew that he was more than a little skinny and being 5'5 wasn't spectacular for someone his age... but it wasn't that bad either.

Glaring at her he frowned. She really could manage to get on someone's bad side.

"Oh. Uh..." She blanched at that, trying to find a way to rub out the insult. No luck. "Well I gotta run, Dicky. I have to clean up this mess before the show starts and get ready." Boom Boom said glancing at the tent. "But here." She extended her hand.

"What?" Dick asked looking at the outstretched palm.

There was nothing in it.

"Gimme yours." She instructed.

Sighing he gave up figuring the weird game and put his hand in hers.

"WAAAAH-" Robin choked.

Yanking him forward the woman cuffed his chin and leaned down to give him a motherly peck on the check.

But in a flash her red stained mouth changed it's angle and before the boy could react her lips fiercely pressed against his.

Sucking the breath right out of him Robin's protests were cut short as he was overwhelmed by the sheer force behind her kiss.

Her lips were so cold, the young man felt like a thousand prickles of ice had passed from his mouth into his blood freezing it instantly. His knees buckled and he almost lost his balance from the intensity as she held him to her with strength he didn't think possible for someone her size. After three good tugs Robin finally managed to rip himself away from her grasp before he felt a strange numbness seep over his body, as if the very strength had been sucked right out of him.

"What was that for?" He choked, trying to regain himself.

"That's for coming to a girl's rescue. You're a regular Wonder Boy, Dicky. But I gotta run!" Connie said slapping the boy on the back as she made her exit, "See you in the funny pages! Oh, and I'd get that paint cleaned up if was you. Blue's not really your color." With that she walked away, disappearing into the crowd almost as mysteriously as she had first appeared.

A loud whistle from a gawking spectator brought Robin back to reality. "Way to go, lover boy!" A raunchy teenage punk hooted. "She got a sister?"

Ignoring him Robin walked past the main tent and stood by a empty wall.

Despite himself the detective in the Teen Wonder was temporarily KO'd by the shock of the situation.

Silently reeling at what had just happened to him, Dick had to be admit he was _never_ going to be able to get used to being kissed like that.

After all Starfire had almost ripped his lips off during their first encounter too.

Not that that had been a _bad_ thing though...

Clutching his head with one hand and bringing the other to touch his lips, Robin tried to shake himself out of his daze. Suddenly he winced as his hand grazed against the far edge of his lips. It was quickly followed by the metallic taste of blood.

She bit me.

"S-she _bit..._ me!" He exclaimed out loud. "What the... hell?" Suddenly he felt a little dizzy again. Bringing a clammy hand up to his head he glanced around for the bathrooms, his vision dancing as he took a few shaky steps.

_Ugh... the paint fumes must be getting to me..._

"Dick?" A voice asked for the second time that day. Whirling around the boy suddenly found himself face to face with the one person he honestly didn't think he'd find so easily.

"Mr. Haley?" He exclaimed instantly ready to give the man a huge hug before he realized he was still covered in paint. Stopping short he couldn't hide his excitement despite his normally callous behavior as he blurted, "You haven't changed a bit, sir!"

Laughing the old ring leader took out a handkerchief, "I certainly can't say the same about you, you've gotten so big I hardly recognized you! But son... why are you covered in paint?" He asked patting the boy's face.

"Uh... I just ran into Boom Boom." Dick said flushing allowing the man to dote on him like a grandfather. "And I got clumsy."

Blinking the ringleader wanted to make sure he heard right. "Did you say Boom Boom? As in Connie Wilhelm?"

"Yeah..." Dick said a little helplessly at the look Mr. Haley was giving him alone.

"Dick, Boom Boom moved to Metropolis about three years ago." Mr. Haley stated pulling the hankerchief away. "It couldn't have been her you saw."

"But I-" Floored Dick couldn't think of an answer. His mind seemed a little slower than usual. Bringing a hand up to check his temperature he wondered if the cold weather was giving him the flu or something. His reaction time seemed cloudy and there was a dull ache spreading through his head.

"Listen, lad. It's wonderful to see you but it's curtain time in 20 minutes." Mr. Haley grinned clutching the boy's shoulders. "Come by after the show and stay for dinner. Everyone would love to have a chance to see you. How's Mr. Wayne?"

"Yes sir. But... you... your letter made it seem like it was urgent." Dick said all the more confused. Mr. Haley seemed downright surprised to see him. Stepping forward he exclaimed, "I came as soon as I could."

"Letter?" Mr. Haley asked.

Pulling out the small piece of paper Dick held it up for the man. "The one you wrote me." He stated.

"Dicky... son, I've got arthritis in both my hands. I haven't written any letters in quite some time. And I'd certainly remember if I had written one to _you_." Mr. Haley said matter of factly.

"But that's... then... if you didn't write it... who _did_?" Was all Robin could ask.

Watching him from several yards away, the woman's mouth curled into a grin. Pulling at her blue paint covered hair, the black wig came loose and revealed a mass of blond locks stuck into two pigtails. "Sorry for borrowing your trick, Red." She mused softly to herself, wiping her lipstick off with her arm. She had to give Poison Ivy one thing, you had to love hormones. Bird Boys or B Men alike, they were play-dough when it came to that stuff.

"AHEM." Clearing her voice the woman pulled out a two way radio that looked like a clown toy found out of some kid's cereal box. "Hey, Pudding." Harley Quinn beamed. "I just gave Bird Boy his medicine. It's all yours from here."

Putting the radio down, Joker looked at the man sitting across from him. "Well, Harley's done her part. It's your turn, Chuckles."

Eyes narrowing in amusement Slade nodded. "You're right. Now that the pawns are making their move, I can start bringing out the big pieces."

-Jump City-

"... Would you like to possibly go to the mall of shopping?" Starfire inquired.

"Nah. We don't need anything." Beast Boy shrugged from his spot on the couch.

"We could go and see a movie?" Cyborg suggested.

"There's never anything good released in the fall." Raven said tonelessly as she leafed through a magazine.

"Well let's think of _something_, I'm so bored I think I'm going to shrivel up!" Kid Flash moaned flopping around on the couch like a dying fish. "Man, now I'm starting to wish you _had_ convinced Robin to let us come too. At least bugging him would be better than this."

"So why do we have to worry about entertaining you? Aren't you supposed to be hanging out with Jinx anyways?" Cyborg asked. He couldn't mask the bitterness in his voice despite how hard he tried. It had been a well known fact that he had had a crush on her for sometime before she had joined the good team.

Getting a somewhat disgruntled and constipated look on his face Kid Flash hugged his knees and shrugged, "She said she had to wash her hair tonight."

"Ooooh, you're in the dog house!" Beast Boy teased suddenly interested in what stupid thing Flash had done this time. "No one uses _that_ lame excuse anymore. What'd you _do_?"

"I don't want to talk about it." Kid Flash snarled. "And why do you suddenly assume _I_ did something? Maybe she just actually has to wash her hair tonight!"

"_R~ight_. And I'm a motivational speaker." Raven said with a dark smile.

Kid Flash's hair was visibly frizzling. "See this why I don't hang out with you guys, you're all a bunch of-" Whatever he wanted to say fell short as the Titan's common room door opened.

"Robin?" Starfire asked hopefully floating to the entrance in eager anticipation of her friend.

But it wasn't Robin that awaited her greeting. Stepping forward the boy in the pink tunic, put a hand on his blond curls in embarrassment as if to apologize.

"Friend Jericho?" Starfire said surprised. "I am sorry, I thought that you were Robin." Motioning to the couch she beamed, "Please enter and join us in the boredom. Perhaps you can find a solution that we have overlooked."

"Jericho?" Beast Boy asked blinking. He hardly ever left his mountain top. "What brings you all the way out here, man? Is something up?"

Shaking his head to assure them it wasn't a big deal Jericho gave his friends a warm smile. Then as it was always a shock when the boy actually spoke, he gave the Titans a moment before he asked, "Will Robin be gone long?"

"Nah, man." Cyborg said making room for him on the couch. That ethereal voice of his always seemed a little creepy, despite how much he and the other Titans liked the smaller kid. "He said he'll be back in a day or two. You're welcome to hang out until he comes back, but are you sure there's nothing wrong that we can't help with?"

Again Jericho shook his head, his blond curls spilling out over his warm half closed eyes. Speech was always difficult for the boy which was why it was even weirder to hear him so easily answer Cyborg. "I just wanted to see my friends." Jericho murmured settling in between Starfire and Beast Boy.

How he would miss Titans Tower.

To be continued...


	6. A Rose By Any Other Name

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 6: A Rose By Any Other Name

-Gotham City-

It was nearly two thirty in the morning by the time Robin broke away from Haley's circus. Mr. Haley had offered him a place to stay for the night, but he had politely declined. It had been wonderful to see them again. All the hard feelings he thought he would have at returning to the place that he had lost so much just weren't there. Everyone was so happy, and Haley Circus still felt so alive and real. He could hold no sorrow in his heart for this place save one.

But that was a wound he had long given up on closing. Knowing everyone here was okay was enough for him.

It was even colder after the sun had gone down, and the now empty fairgrounds seemed like another world when the customers were gone. Walking back to where his motorcycle was parked Dick felt like he was the only person alive on earth. Staring out ahead of him he could make out the entrance to the highway that would lead him to Wayne Manor.

"Sorry Bruce." He said under his breath before driving in the opposite direction.

With his free hand he reached into his pocket and slid his mask back onto his face. No, there was too much on his mind for him tonight. And driving back to Jump City would give him plenty of time to think on it.

-Jump City-

"Comfy?" Slade asked the small child sitting beside him. The little girl nodded, not looking at him and instead burning a hole in her bowl of cereal. It was the only way she could hide how scared she was of the orange and black clad stranger.

"But I don't like you, Mister."

"I'm not really asking you to like me, Rose." Slade mused finding the defiant courage of a six year old very amusing. She was much more like her brother than she realized. She too had a fighter's spirit.

"You're a bad man." She said calmly.

"Yes. But that's a bold statement coming from a orphan. Watch your tongue or you could end up as just another unsolved missing child case."

The little girl didn't flinch at that harsh statement. Kids raised in orphanages tended to have thicker skin than most. It was surprising though to think that such a beautiful little girl had gone unadopted for so long. She was pale and ethereal just like her brother. She also shared the same curly locks, though hers were snow white and curled all around her in a manner that would make most princess illustrations pale. But unlike her brother, there was something different about her. If left alone Joey was as harmless as a puppy content to play his lute all day, and live in peace and quiet atop his hilltop. This little kitten however, looked like she had claws underneath that cute exterior.

"Where is my brother?" Rose asked lightly tapping her spoon on the bowl.

"Your brother?" Slade asked genuinely surprised to hear that question. To his knowledge the girl should have been heavily sedated at the time he and Joey had had their little talk. And according to his research, Jericho had never contacted her since the day he had placed her in social services care. "Why he's working hard for you, Rose." He said through a masked smile. "Tell me my dear do you like your brother?"

"I've never met him." Rose said quietly. "But I dream about him."

"Oh?" The black clad man breathed. Poor poor Joey, his powers were too strong for even him to put a lid on. Despite all his efforts to erase himself from her life, he still managed to find a way to reach her. "And do you like him in your dreams?"

"Mm!" The little girl said with a nod reverting back into a normal six year old girl eager to talk her head off about a big brother she idolized. "He's my-"

Suddenly she gasped and realized who she was talking to quickly whirling her gaze back to her cereal.

"I'm not _telling._"

"But you want to see him." Slade replied.

"... I want to see him." She said wistfully.

"You will." Slade replied. "When he comes back from his errands, I'm certain he'll be glad to see you too."

Silence echoed between the two before the child got up the courage to glare at the man.

"I won't forgive you, you know." The little girl warned him.

Laughing Slade couldn't hide the amusement glittering through his good eye. She was bold and had quite a snide tone for being such a small child. "It wouldn't be fun if I was forgiven."

"Good people shouldn't have to be sad. Nice people like my brother shouldn't have to cry." Rose murmured, "I'm a bad kid so it's okay."

"Who tells you you're a bad kid?" The man asked.

"The people at the orphanage say I'm bad. I get angry. I fight too much. I'm a bad kid, I even broke Tommy's arm." Rose answered.

Now Slade was very amused. This sweet little nymph _did_ have a mean side. Maybe she wasn't as much like Joey as he originally thought. "Life's not fair, Rose." The assassin said looking down at the girl. "Good or bad, people get hurt."

"So you _are_ a bad man then, aren't you Mr. Slade?" Rose asked staring back at him.

"A _very_ bad man, my dear." Slade grinned.

-Titan's Tower-

"Hey guys..." A very tired Robin called as he stepped into the Titan Tower's common room. Lucky for him, no one seemed to be in. That was fine as far as he was concerned. He was tired, confused, and pretty sure he had just caught the worst cold of his life. Even being back in Jump City he was still freezing. Checking the thermostat the Tower was at 72 degrees down to the mark, which meant it was him and not the heater that was broken. He heard the door behind him open and realized maybe he had gotten ahead of himself in thinking the others were gone.

"OH GLORIOUS!" Starfire's voice exclaimed as she saw his thin frame. "Friend Robin, you have returned!"

"Hey Star." He said with a smile as the girl proceeded to give him a vice like hug.

"Dude what happened to you?" Beast Boy asked coming into the room. "You're covered in paint."

"Huh?" Robin slurred a little dazed as he brought a hand up to his clammy forehead. He had forgotten that he was still wearing civilian clothes. "Oh... it's nothing some... crazy girl lost her balance while painting."

"Robin you are most cold, are you feeling alright?" Starfire exclaimed putting a hand up to feel his cheek. "And you are paler than the underbelly of a Snalorin Morklob."

"I'm just tired Star." Robin said taking her hand off of his check and give it a reassuring squeeze. "It was a long drive."

"So how was your friend?" Cyborg asked as two more Titans followed behind him.

Smiling warmly Jericho ran up to meet Robin and eagerly took both of his hands shaking them eagerly.

"Jericho?" Robin blinked surprised as the small Titan gave him a warm but silent welcome home. "How's it going man? What brings you here?"

Jericho gave him a wide smile and threw back his shoulders in a shrug communicating via body language that it wasn't important. Instead he simply motioned to the couch and waited for Robin to follow. It was obvious that he wanted Robin to continue his story.

"Yeah man, you look bushed." Kid Flash exclaimed. "Tell us what happened."

Biting his lip Robin took a long intake of air and looked at the eager faces of his friends. The pounding in his head and the aches spreading across his body were already impairing his judgement but he wasn't sure if he wanted to say anything to them just yet. Maybe he was just being paranoid. And while he wanted to think that so far it was nothing more than a harmless prank the detective in him knew better then to rely on false hope like that. Someone knew who he was, and what would get him back in Gotham at the drop of a hat. Someone with knowledge like that was probably not harmless. Keeping quiet about it until he knew more was probably the best thing.

Taking one last look at Starfire's soft smile as she stood beside him he felt his insides bend. No... no more secrets. If he did that, he'd be breaking his promise to them.

"It was a dead end." Robin said sitting on the couch after his prolonged silence. His eyes hardening he muttered, "My friend was fine but he didn't write the letter."

Blanching Kid Flash decided to ask the question everyone was thinking, "Then who did?"

"That's what I'd like to know." Robin said his eyes narrowing. "This is someone's idea of a sick game. And you know... I don't think it's over just yet."

To be continued...


	7. Nightmares

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 7: Nightmares

-Robin's Mind-

Robin was so confused.  
He had two sets of memories.  
One was the past he knew.

The other made his blood run cold.

The Robin in _that_ past was a monster.

He only watched as his parents fell. But the boy high above the circus tent stared with a almost sick grin as they crumpled to the ground and the light slowly faded from their eyes.

_"They were holding you back, you know."_ His own voice sneered in his head. "_Trapping you in their world like a bird in a cage. Looking back on it, it was better they died. After all it made us stronger." _

_"No."_ Robin thought dully. "_That's not me."_

_"How do you know?"_ The voice inside his head asked. "_You might be wrong."_

_"I... I don't know... I think..."_ His mind felt so weighed down he could barely register anything. "_I'm not..."_

_"I know, I know."_ The other Robin chuckled. "_You're a **hero**. You'd never admit that you were lucky Zucco knocked off Mom and Dad. Getting adopted by a billionaire, training under the greatest detective of all time. Learning how to be one of the best fighters in the world. Who would ever prefer that to being a circus brat? You would never admit that you like the feeling of power. You like the rush."_

_"But I **can** admit it, Robin." _The voice reasoned. "_I'm glad it happened. Because I don't hide under that justice crap. Heroes are easily forgotten or replaced."_

_"And one way or another they always fall."_

_"Shut up."_ Robin choked miserably. His mind was blocked off, his personality seemed hazy. Everything was so... he couldn't remember what was real.

_"Do you really think you're a hero underneath it all? What about Zucco huh?"_ The voice asked. "_Just like that, Zucco took away your parents, and Bruce's trust. You hate him for it don't you?"_

_"No..."_ Robin said with clenched teeth. "_I used to... I..."_

_"You hate him for it."_

_"Yes..."_ Robin whispered his intellect slow, his mind felt so heavy...

_"Because that's your real driving force. It's the reason you fight. It's your reason for living."_ The voice breathed as if it was almost smiling. "_Justice is just a pretty word we use to mask what we really want."_

_"And that's revenge."_

Black. It was all black. The voice in his head and his own the only thing that existed in this dark place. If Robin could have seen his hands he would have tried to bury his face in them.  
_"NO!" _Robin said fiercely. "_I'm not like **that**!"_

Things were getting blurry. The voice wasn't listening to him.

"_I'm not like that, dammit!"_ He snarled from inside the darkness as things started going blank. The identity he had spent sixteen years piecing together seemed to be crumbling apart in his head as though it was sand. The black and white lines of life started to blur into gray. And the things that had meant more to him than anything were fading despite how desperately tried to cling to himself.

_"NO!"_ He called through clenched teeth his voice knotted in anger. "_I may not be perfect, but I want to be me. That's the only person I want to be!"_

-Titan's Tower-

"Robin?" A voice asked from outside Robin's room. "I heard screaming. Are you unharmed? Have you the night horses?"

No answer.

But the alien girl was persistent. "I know it is most late but may I enter?" She called from the hallway.

**CRACK!**

Inside his dream suddenly a hand snapped back from the back of his mind, letting go of the lock that had been placed around it. The darkness disappeared, the voice shattered into mindless noise and Robin's mind opened again.

Jericho cursed as he released Robin from his control. With Starfire outside the room, he'd have to finish this later. Glancing at Robin he had to admit whatever Slade had done to the leader of the Titans was serious. Robin hadn't even flinched when Jericho had entered his room, and his mind had no guards on it. It was as if his psyche was somewhere else.

"You just have to close off his mind." Slade had instructed. "Just for one night. That's all, Jericho. Then you and your Rose can go free."

_I'm so sorry, Robin._ He thought remorsefully as he looked at the boy sleeping on the bed. He knew that there had to be something more to Slade's plan than just his part. Something was wrong with Robin, and he was going to deal the final blow.

It would be his hand that would spell the end of his dear friends.

Disappearing from sight Jericho's form was replaced by the tall, slender figure of Starfire as she opened the door to Robin's room.

"That is strange." She said to herself. "It is unlocked, Robin is usually most diligent in his security measures." Moving to his bed, Starfire shook the sleeping boy. "Robin, please awaken!"

He was as cold and still as a slab of ice, and Starfire felt her stomach churn in concern. Then slowly he seemed to stir.

Robin could hear a voice calling him, but he couldn't recognize it at first. Opening his eyes slowly, his whole body felt heavy and stiff.

"ROBIN!" Starfire called again, wishing that she could see his eyes under the white lenses of his mask.

"...who?" Robin wheezed his blurry eyes trying to focus on the unique features of the person from behind his mask. "Star...fire?" He asked shakily trying to stabilize himself as he sat up. "What are you doing in my-"

"I am sorry for coming in so late, but I heard your cries and wished to make sure everything was alright." The beautiful alien explained. Reaching out she gently put a hand on his forehead. "You do not look like yourself."

"I... had a bad dream." He wheezed wiping the sweat off his brow. "I can't remember much about it. I was so tired after coming home... can't really place everything that happened. What time is it?"

"It is not important." Starfire answered. "You should rest. If there is a need for battle we have friend Jericho and Kid Flash to assist us. For now you should focus on regaining your strength."

Trying to give her a smile he breathed, "It's not that big of a deal Star... guess I just caught a cold."

Motherly wrapping the blanket around him, Starfire was not so convinced. "You are a bad liar. But I feel that the sickness is not all that is troubling you. Do you wish to drop the beans?"

"Robin?" She asked again touching his hand. He wasn't listening.

Robin's head was spinning.

The girl beside was glowing as if someone had placed a strobe light directly behind her washing out everything but her outline. She spoke but he couldn't hear her, since it was drowned out by the pounding sound of his heartbeat as it echoed in his own ears like drums. Taking in a small rush of air Robin tried in vain to ignore the terrible ache spreading through his body.

If there had ever been another time he had been this miserable, he was having a hard time remembering it.

"Sorry... Star..." The boy wheezed his grip on the sheets tightening as he tried to stable himself, "I got a little dizzy. D-did you say something?"

"You are not alright!" Starfire said her green eyes flashing with worry. "You do not get the sick! This is serious! I will go and get Cyborg or Raven for they will know what to do."

"No!" Robin spat bringing a hand up to his head and clutching his temple in frustration. Turning to the girl his bad mood was worsened by how bad he was feeling at the moment.

"But Robin I don't think-"

"That's just it, Starfire." He snarled. "You're not much of a thinker. I said I'm fine. Just get out." The boy on the bed didn't look much like himself. Even though his eyes were covered by the mask, Starfire could feel the rage burning within them."You're bothering me." He stated his voice dark with anger.

"I am sorry..." The girl whispered tears welling in her eyes as she stepped backward. "I did not mean to upset you." This person was not acting very much like the gentle Robin she knew. Despite the obvious pain he was in, the boy in bed was emitting a aura that seemed downright dangerous.

And then just like that the monster vanished.

Clutching his head Robin choked, "Star... I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me."

"Maybe you're right." He said as calmly as he could. "Maybe I need to see Cyborg."

"Robin." Starfire murmured squeezing his shoulder, "I-"

The blare of the Titan's alarm stopped her short.

"Guys, get your butts to the common room!" Cyborg called from the hallway. "Something big is happening!"

Climbing out of bed, Robin raced out the door. He could be sick later.

"What's big?" He asked his larger friend as he and the rest of the Titans assembled by the communication system.

"An old buddy of yours just showed up in the city." Cyborg answered as the monitor turned on and a face emerged on screen. Eyes narrowing each syllable filled his mouth with a bitter taste as Robin spat,

"The Joker."

To be continued...


	8. Bargains

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 8: Bargains

"AHAAAAHAAAA!"

There were few things on earth Robin hated as much as that laugh.

Because with that laugh pain and suffering followed close behind it and the lines of sanity blurred. Life with the Joker became one sick joke. But the body bags and mental patients that came with that laugh didn't make it very funny.

Cringing Robin couldn't hide the small trickle of sweat that poured down his neck in fear.

Slade was a cold and calculating monster, and probably a sociopath. And while he was an unfeeling bastard who didn't care about the pain of others he was focused on his trophies. Hunting what he wanted meant everything to Slade.

The Joker on the other hand didn't care who or what he hurt.

That was part of the joke to him.

"Hello Kiddies." Joker beamed to the television broadcast. "Just your friendly Uncle Joker here." The camera angle moved along with him as he waltzed down the street talking to the recording as merrily as a father returning home to his family from within the reality of some bad sitcom. "Now a few of you out in the masses may be wondering why I'm here." Joker grinned, "Well even a happy go lucky guy like me needs a vacation now and again. And nothing like warm sands and loads of suckers to make a vacation complete. So I thought to myself, 'Gee, Brat Boy liked this place so much he decided to ditch the Bat and leave. Must be one heck of a place." His voice getting higher and sweeter he breathed, "So here I am." In the background his goons were causing the usual riots. Several clown cars had bulldozed there way into shop windows, and Harley Quinn was busy helping herself to the spoils of a jewelry shop. Waving to the camera as it panned over her she looked as dolled up as a Looney Toon character, adding three tiaras to her headpiece as a finishing touch.

"And lookey here I brought the kids too!" Joker laughed.

"_Harley Quinn."_ Robin hissed his eyes narrowing into slits as it finally registered. No wonder she had looked so familiar. Watching her pucker up and blow kisses to the camera from the screen, his anger only deepened. Those were some of the loosest lips in Gotham City. "Why didn't I see it sooner!" He snarled slamming his fist onto the keyboard.

"Something wrong, Rob?" Cyborg asked a little bewildered as the Teen Wonder took out his aggression on the communication room's equipment. Robin was acting a little hot under the collar, even for _him_. "Cuz we should be focusing more on busting up the bad guys and not my equipment." The taller boy said condescendingly.

Frizzling Robin took a deep breath and tried to control his temper.

"She must have drugged me with something when she kissed me." Robin replied, although it was more to himself than to the other Titans. "I can't believe I let myself get fooled by a wig and cheap acting job." He slid his fist into the wall seething.

"Calm down dude," Kid Flash exclaimed before he stopped cold.

"Wait."

"She _kissed_ you?"

Whirling to the screen the three other boys in the room gave Harley Quinn a good hard look.

"Crazy." Kid Flash stated.

"Evil." Beast Boy added.

"She's got a least ten years on any of us." Cyborg nodded.

They took a minute, collected all the facts and turned slowly to give Robin a cold glare.

"… _lucky_ bastard." Kid Flash said crossing his arms.

"Man!" Beast Boy snarled, "That kind of stuff _always_ happens to Robin! It's not fair."

"HELLO Nurse!" Cyborg whistled. "Hey Robin, where the heck did Clown Boy pick up Miss Cutey?"

"Um… I hate to point this out, but we're trying to watch the demands of a psychopath." Raven said flatly trying to keep her malice for the Y chromosome from boiling over. In the distance a window could be heard breaking though despite her efforts. Pushing back the crosshatch that was sprouting on her forehead she droned,"You boys can ask Robin about dating advice later."

Jericho nodded in agreement as he tried to turn his attention back to the madman on TV.

"I agree with friend Raven, this is most serious." Starfire said calmly.

Never mind her hair twisting into snakes and the evil aura that was looming nine feet above Robin's head as rise to think she felt otherwise.

As she bore down upon Robin, her shadow burying him like the creature in some horror film she asked sweetly, "But first. Perhaps my knowledge of earth terms is lacking, but did you say the 'kiss'?"

Uh oh. Now she did it. And in proper mature fashion the Titan common room broke out into middle school level gossip. Saving the world or not, it wasn't every day that Teen Wonders got to make out with older female fatales.

"All of you... _shut up_." Robin said firmly. "I thought you all were capable of at least pretending you can handle yourselves in a crisis. If this is all you can talk about when someone as dangerous as the Joker is involved, I'm disgusted." Eyes narrowing he added. "I've wasted my time on you."

Suddenly no one had anything else to say.

All that would have been easier to swallow if it had been said in rage. The normal Robin shot his mouth off a lot, and sometimes ended up saying things he didn't mean because he was stubborn or short tempered. But this time his temper had nothing to do with it. Instead his voice was so cold, it silenced the Titans immediately. It had no warmth, no compassion for them and it was dead serious. Reeling Robin suddenly let out a choke like he had been kicked and whatever frigid monster had taken possession of him seemed to disappear.

"Look I- I didn't mean that." He said softly knotting his hand in his dark locks. "It's just... we've got more important things to worry about then my social calendar." Their leader stated. "The Joker is insane. He could hurt a lot of people if we don't stop him. Don't let his cheesy costume and bad jokes fool you."

"I don't get it Robin." Beast Boy spoke up, trying to find a way to clear the gap that their leader had rifted between the Titans with that little outburst. "He looks like just your average costumed nut. I was expecting someone a lot more scarier."

"Don't assume anything when it involves the Joker, Beast Boy." Robin said quietly. "I.. I don't want any of you getting hurt." Staring at the screen his lips tightened into a thin frown. "But we have a city to protect. And we're not going to give Joker the time to bump his game up from petty robberies. We're ending this now." Turning to his friends they could feel his eyes burning with worry. "Look out for each other, alright?"

With a raise of his hand the usual battle cry was issued, "Titans GO!"

With that single hand command the Titans dispelled, although each one couldn't help but give their leader a worried glance. That outburst had hurt each of them more than they'd admit. Robin had never said something as bad as he had wasted time with them. They could take bullets, space monsters, and demons from the darker realms. But that had hit them like a punch in the stomach.

"Hey… Rob, you okay?" Kid Flash asked as he ran alongside Robin's blaring motorcycle. "You don't really seem like yourself. And what was that all about back there?"

"He _knows_ who I am, Wally." Robin said tonelessly staring out at the empty road. "The letter, Boom Boom, the kiss, it's all connected to me. And the only way the Joker could have pulled all that off is if he knew who I was." He tried to hide the bitterness in his voice, but it wasn't working. "If he knows who I am then Bruce-"

_No_ _wonder Dick's being a dick._ Kid Flash realized as he ran. "You're doing it again." He said flatly to the Teen Wonder. "You're doing that guilt thing again."

"Guilt thing?" Robin asked as he changed lanes.

"Batman's a big boy, Dicky." Kid Flash said honestly. "If Joker found out about things, it's not your fault. And you won't be able to help Batman or us if you're too busy kicking your own butt over weird stuff to kick the bad guy's. So right now, let's just focus on how we're going to stop this guy."

"Yeah…" Robin nodded taking a minute to wipe the sweat from his neck. "You're right, KF. I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it. I'll always be around to remind you when you're being an idiot." Kid Flash smiled.

Glancing at his best friend, Robin weakly managed a smile of his own.

His good mood didn't last long.

Letting out a choke of pain, Robin clutched his head almost swerving into oncoming traffic as his body seemed to lose control of itself for a moment.

"ROBIN!" Kid Flash exclaimed reaching forward and grabbing the bike steering with both hands. They both screeched to a halt as Robin managed to shakily grab the handle bars again.

"I… I just got a little dizzy." He whispered taking off his helmet and putting a clammy hand to his sweat covered forehead.

"Man, that clown babe must have really done a number on you." Kid Flash breathed looking the Teen Wonder over. This was a guy who would probably keep fighting even he lost an arm or two in battle. Robin didn't show his pain even to his friends. For him to be this bad off was a little unnerving. His normally spiky, tousled black hair was now practically plastered to his face. "Jeez man, you really must be hurting," Kid Flash said sympathetically. He could see the lines of pain that were just under Robin's eyes even from under his mask. "You sure you shouldn't sit this one out?"

"None of you know the Joker like I do." Robin wheezed. "This isn't Johnny Rancid or some school yard punk. If you guys got hurt-"

"Look, let us worry about our own butts. You're not in any position to fight!" Kid Flash exclaimed.

"I'm alright." Robin said, getting that cold tone back in his voice as he raised his head up. "And I don't remember anyone making _you_ leader."

"I didn't know you needed a merit badge to worry about someone." Flash answered his voice knotting in anger.

"I'm sorry Wally." Robin said miserably. "I don't know what's wrong with me tonight. These thoughts just keep popping into my head and..." Hanging his head he stared at the cement. "I didn't mean anything I said before."

"Don't worry about it, man." Kid Flash said with a soft smile. "You had me at sorry. Just watch your own butt out there okay. The Titans don't need you to explode on us or anything." Whirling forward he resumed his speed. "So let's go kick some wacko butt!" He called as he passed the next block.

-Jump City-

(Underground)

"Tell me Rose, do you know how to make a bad guy?" Slade asked the little girl next to him. Trying to ignore him Rose sat on the farthest crate in the factory and pretended she hadn't heard him.

"It's really very simple. Would you like to know the secret?" He mused.

"You sound like Mr. Joker." Rose said crossing her arms and squeezing herself closer to the other crates. "Who cares how you make a bad guy."

"But I'm making one right now." Slade said tsking tsking. "Although I do admit I wish he would have come to me out of his own want for power. But Robin and I are two of a kind. We're both stubborn and we both hate to lose. So even though it's not a method I would have preferred, in the end I still win."

"You're crazy." Rose muttered fiddling with a lock of her hair.

"They say that the recipe for a truly derranged mind only needs three things." Slade continued ignoring her little outburst. "First is a abusive or traumatic childhood, the second is a overcritical nature, and lastly, is a slight abnormality in the frontal lobe of the brain." Holding out one of his Slade discs, the man watched the light reflect off the blade. "A little information bought and paid for from the Riddler gave me all the answers I wanted to know. And now that I know who Robin is behind that mask, I can add all the ingredients together. He already qualifies for the first two but he needed a little _help_ with the third. But in a little place called the limbic regions, if the neurons in the brain stop firing to the other cylinders... a person would forget what empathy is. They would lose the ability to gage right and wrong. A person like that would only be able to see his own ambition and what he wanted."

"You're having my brother make you a serial killer?" Rose asked harshly.

"Joey could never do such a evil thing." Slade laughed. "No, this little pill is making my monster. A perfect mix of chemicals and microchips, it can influence the mind through suggestion better than any magic spell." The man answered holding up the small canister. "The government has devised a way to completely alter the brain, and they don't even realize it. They target the frontal lobe where memory is stored, hoping to use that to manipulate the masses. I took that technology and personalized it. And when you target just a little below the memory, you find a realm where gods are born."

"If your pill is so great, why do you need my brother?" Rose asked clenching her fists.

"The pill only works when the subject is in deep REM cycle. It literally wipes away parts of the brain while a person sleeps. But for someone like Robin to stay that way long enough for the process to complete itself, I'd practically need to shut off his mind. Which is what Joey is doing. As long as he can manage to successfully shut off Robin's brain waves to allow the pill to target his limbic regions, you stay nice and comfortable. You see my dear it's Robin's soul for your life." Slade mused reaching forward and twirling a lock of the girl's beautiful white hair in his gloved fingers.

"A fair trade, wouldn't you think?"

To be continued...


	9. The Jokes on You

**Standard Disclaimer: I still don't own Teen Titans or Batman.**

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 9: The Jokes on You

-Jump City-

"He's late." Joker said casually stepping over the twisted bodies of two security guards so he could see the clock. "Kids today, no manners eh Harley?"

"Sure Mr. J," Harley grinned as she stuffed her purse with one more pearl necklace. "But he and B-man always did have a thing for being fashionably late."

"Looking for me, Joker?" A voice asked coming directly from behind Harley Quinn's shoulder.

"EEEP!" The clown girl gasped whirling around to see the Boy Wonder in question emerge out of the shadows.

"Ah there you are!" Joker beamed stepping out in front of Harley and towards the boy. "We were starting to think you weren't coming."

The left wall around them shattered with the sound of a blast before brick and dust flew everywhere.

"Yeah well he's not alone." Cyborg announced pulling back his sonic cannon as he stepped out of the rubble with Starfire and Jericho close behind.

No sooner had that been said when the front door to the store shot open and a blur of color zipped through the crooks, as all of the stolen goods found there way back in the cases.

"HEY!" Harley exclaimed as her purse was whipped out of her hands.

"Now, now. Those don't really belong to you." Kid Flash said waggling a finger.

Stepping forward Beast Boy crossed his arms and smirked,"Consider us the Jump City Welcome Committee, Joker."

"And yours is officially worn out." Raven added as she stepped out of the wall beside him.

"Land sakes, Pudding." Harley laughed turning to her Clown Prince. "They got us surrounded."

"Sure looks that way." Joker agreed his lips slinking into a even more twisted grin.

"I wouldn't bother calling for your cronies, Joker." Robin said drawing out his bo staff. "Helps not coming."

"That statement is a little dark coming from you, Robby Pooh." Joker chuckled his eyes twinkling with amusement. "But then you know the saying: The bird doesn't fall very far from the bat."

"Now how do you like that." Harley sighed leaning forward so that she and Robin were almost eye to eye. "Is that any way to treat a old friend?"

"You're not my friend." Robin answered meeting her stare with a dark glare of his own.

"And after we came all this way to see him too." Harley pouted. Then she changed her mind. Inching him closer with a finger her lips curved into a seductive grin, she took a different approach to his cold demeanor. "You sure about that? C'mere baby, give me some more sugar."

Robin's eyes narrowed into slits and his staff slid down striking its target instantly. The metal bar connected with the clown girl's ankles and he pulled forward knocking her legs out from under her and sending her to the ground.

Falling backwards she didn't hit the ground the hard, although she did manage to knock over several display stands as she went. "OUCH!" She exclaimed rubbing her backside, "Didn't your mama teach you not to hit a lady?"

"You're no lady." Robin retorted coldly.

"Temper, temper." Joker said shaking his head. "I'm not really sure Bat Senior would like seeing you this moody."

Robin didn't wait for another joke. Lunging forward the Teen Wonder had managed to clear the distance between him and Clown Prince of Gotham and was inches away from thrusting his staff into the madman's jugular.

"What do you want, Joker?" Robin asked dangerously. "You wouldn't come all the way here to rob a few banks and jewelry stores. It's not your style."

"Oh, are you trying to get inside my head?" Joker asked laughing. "That's dangerous territory, _Dicky."_

The staff inched just a little closer to the Joker's throat as Robin's voice hushed,_"_How do you _know_ about that?"

"Because I told him." A voice answered.

It took a instant for the shadowed figure to reach forward and place something metallic on the back of the larger Titan to Robin's right and the fireworks began.

Cyborg let out a choke as a thousand volts of electricity was pumped into his system.

"CYBORG!" Robin cried out just before his friend hit the ground. Running to his side, Robin tried in vain to lift his friend up off the pavement as his attacker stepped forward.

"Slade!" Beast Boy moaned as the orange and black clad assassin stepped into the arena."GREAT! Now we have to fight TWO maniacs? I shouldn't have gotten out of bed today!"

"How do you know about that, Slade?" Robin asked again, directing the question to the man walking toward him as he tried to stabilize his short-circuiting friend.

"Information can always be bought, Robin. You know that. No closely guarded secret is ever kept hidden forever." Slade said with a smile.

"How did you-?" Robin snarled before he was cut off.

"No more questions for now." Slade said raising his hand. "For now, you just shut up and listen. Tonight's little party was only meant to get your attention."

"That's right, kiddies." Joker added. "Chuckles and I have bigger fish to fry than to hang out and play with you all night. We've been the busy little bees and we did it all right under your snot filled little noses."

"There are two tankards making their way to Gotham City and Metropolis City water plants as we speak." Slade began. He kept his voice, calm and almost lecture like in tone. He knew how much Robin hated to be lectured. "A third tankard has already delivered it's contents to Jump City's water treatment center earlier this evening. As for the other two in each truck there is a single container of chemicals completely unmarked and unrecognizable from the rest of the water shipment. Chemicals that can not be distinguished by taste or smell."

"A biological time bomb waiting to happen." Slade continued. "And in two days, those containers will be processed through normal paperwork and make their way into the main sewage tank to be processed for treatment. If that water makes it back into the city's water supply... well, I'll leave the rest to your imagination."

"There's going to be a lot more smiles around, that's for sure." Joker grinned.

"You have two days." Slade purred as he stared down at Robin. "The sewage drains for each city are timed differently. But the water from that shipment should reach the cities main tanks at midnight, give or take a few minutes."

"You'd destroy three cities for money?" Beast Boy snarled to Slade, his fists clenched in anger as he stared up at the man that had once taken Terra away from him. "Just how sick are you?"

"No money. No ransom." Slade said shaking his head. "There is nothing the masses can offer me this time. I have my sights set on something _higher_."

"We're going to stop you, Slade." Robin seethed.

"It wouldn't be any fun if you didn't try, Robin." The older man replied with a cat like smile. "But I'd hurry if I were you. Time is ticking away while you make idle threats."

"Cyborg, can you stand?" Robin asked his friend quietly.

Groaning the older boy nodded wobbly getting to his feet. "I'm fine, but did you get the license plate on the semi that hit me?" He tried to joke.

"C'mon Titans." Robin ordered keeping a hand on Cyborg's back long enough to make sure he was alright. "We have to stop those trucks."

Letting out a frustrated choke before he left though Robin turned to the two madmen standing side by side.

"This isn't over," He snarled before he and the other Titans made a run for the city streets.

"No Robin," Slade said as he watched the limber boy disappear into the night. "It's just getting started."

Outside the city limits Robin issued his commands. "Raven, Kid Flash, Jericho. You guys go to Metropolis, you're the only ones here that can reach the city in the shortest amount of time."

"You can count on me." Kid Flash grinned. Metropolis was a town he knew like the back of his hand.

"Starfire, Beast Boy, you guys have Gotham." Robin followed. Reaching into his pocket he threw a black communicator shaped like a bat at Starfire who clumsily managed to catch it. "If you need help just call _him_. He won't let you down."

"We will do that." Starfire said solemnly, clutching the communicator as if it were something very precious. "MAN, this is going to be so cool!" Beast Boy exclaimed pumping his fist. "I wonder if we'll get to ride in the Batmobile?"

"And Cyborg and I will try to stop the plant here in Jump City." Robin finished turning to his injured friend. "Good luck you guys."

"No." Jericho stated coming forward from behind Beast Boy.

"No?" Robin repeated a little surprised.

"I'm coming with you two." Jericho said to Robin. "You're still weak from that juice that the Joker's female friend injected in you. And Cyborg is damaged from Slade's attack. You need a three man team more than Raven and Kid Flash." Blinking Jericho stopped short as everyone around him was staring at him with their mouths open, as if he had just grown an extra head.

"W—what?" He blanched, his ghost like voice fading even more out of self consciousness.

"Nothing, Jericho." Robin said scratching his cheek."It's just... well... that's the most you've _ever_ spoken in all the time I've known you."

"Me too." Beast Boy agreed. "That was like, three full sentences!"

Jericho's cheeks turned as purple as his tunic with that comment.

Waving it off Robin only smiled. "Thanks Jericho." He said clasping his friends shoulder, "We could use all the help we can get right now. The _three_ of us will stop the Jump City water supply."

Despite his warm smile, Jericho's heart ached at the gentle touch his friend gave him.

_... ... ... _

_Don't thank me just yet._

He thought bitterly as Robin sounded the standard battle cry,

"TITANS GO!"

To be continued...


	10. Sacrifices

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 10: Sacrifices

-Jump City Sewers-

"You know, Rob we spend way too much time in the sewers. Why do bad guys always have to hide things in places like sewers? My legs are going to rust by the time we get there." Cyborg whined as he and the other boys walked knee deep in sludge. "Why couldn't we just use the front door for once?"

Robin managed a chuckle through his gritted teeth as he stepped over the larger pieces of sewage. "I don't know how good of an idea it would be for us to let the Public Works department in on Slade's plans." He said seriously, "It could cause a widespread panic. The back door into the sewage plant isn't the prettiest, but it's the fastest." Turning a corner he and the others came to a huge iron door at the end of the pathway.

"Well here we are." He said turning to his friends.

"Those chemicals might be able to pass through most systems, but my scanner can handle anything Slade can cook up." Cyborg grinned patting his arm monitor.

"Good." Robin replied as he unlocked the huge door by pulling the valve open. "Because we don't have much time."

"But Slade said we had two days." Cyborg replied as he walked behind the smaller boy.

"Gotham and Metropolis have two days." Robin stated. "But if the chemicals here in Jump City are already scheduled to be processed we only have till midnight tonight. Slade used the other two cities as comparisons so he could throw us off."

"Or he knew you'd figure out his real intention." Cyborg muttered as he stared at the clock on his arm. They had less than a hour.

The Titans shot out security cameras whenever one crossed their paths as they ran down the hall. They didn't have time to deal with any authority figures right now.

Robin was lagging behind the others and he knew it. But he kept telling himself he could curl up in a ball and die later. Right now he had to keep himself together. Feeling eyes on him Robin realized all too late that Jericho had been staring at him for a while now. Darting away the leader of the Titans broke ahead of the group and took a few overconfident strides.

He couldn't afford to show the others he was weak.

But if his voice hadn't already been so strange Robin might have noticed the torment in the younger boy's voice. In a small stammer Jericho couldn't help but ask, "Robin... are you okay?"

"I'm _fine_." Robin barked.

They were both bad liars... Jericho thought miserably as he watched the older boy open the door to the city's water supply.

And what they were met with made all of their stomachs drop.

There were five huge tanks that seemed to engulfed the warehouse as if it were a aquarium. And sitting next to the tanks in neat stacks were thousands upon thousands of sewage containers lined up for processing.

_There are so many of them..._

"Alright." Robin said calmly, supporting himself on the wall. He couldn't be disheartened. Although his voice was strong again, the leader of the Titans was looking less and less like himself. He had always had fair skin but now he looked even paler than usual, his dark hair causing a jutting contrast to his paper white skin.

_Ugh.. my eyes... I...I can't focus._ He thought his teeth clenching as the hallway blurred and waved. But he just couldn't let it show, especially at a time like this. "Don't let the amount of these containers get to you." Robin ordered making a break for a pile. "We just have to search all of them. Cyborg, run a scan on the first tank."

"Easier said than done." Cyborg sighed starting up the ladder that would lead him up to the top of the tank.

"Easier than you might think actually."

Slade was waiting for them in the rafters. Like a tiger crouched in the darkness he waited until Cyborg was directly below him before silently landing on the ground. Jumping backwards a few feet the larger Titan barely avoided Slade's attack.

"It's an ambush." Cyborg seethed his sonic cannon glowing as he pointed it at Slade.

"You're only half right." Slade answered holding a small detonator button up.

"Oh Robin. You still haven't learned anything." The assassin said shaking his head. "You just can't trust people."

"The canister isn't here is it?" Robin asked darkly as he darted beside Cyborg. "It seemed a little too easy that you'd map out the location for us just like that."

"That's my boy." Slade replied with a smile. "Clever as always."

There were no drawn out discussions this time, no gloating, not taunting. Pushing the detonator button Slade simply said.

"But you all won't be around long enough to find out where it is."

All it took was a button, and suddenly the ground underneath them disappeared in a crash of fire and rubble. There must have been enough plastic explosives on the sewer foundation to sink half of Gotham. Plummeting into the abyss, Robin and the others could barely let out screams before they were silenced by hundreds of pounds of water.

But the water was the least of their worries.

Pain ripped through Robin's sides, as propeller fans and hard metal walls beat themselves into his skin, again, and again. He kept himself from crying out, if he wasted any precious air he'd be giving himself a death sentence. It felt like a eternity as he was pulled deeper and deeper into the pipes.

Then it was strangely quiet.

Opening his eyes all he could see ahead him was black emcompassing water.

_I must be at the bottom of the water tanks._

Robin had never really thought about dying before. But he couldn't move, his whole body had been pummeled and plastered into every drain pipe in Jump City. A dark black object floated just above his eyes. Turning his head with what little willpower he could muster he watched as his mask fell away like a scene from a movie. He couldn't stop it, or control it. As it sank into the dark depths he realized bitterly his secret wouldn't die with him.

He couldn't protect Bruce even in death.

His body was nothing more than a broken rag doll at this point. The boy's lungs were screaming for air, he could feel every cell in his body aching for it. But he was so deep under the water he couldn't see the surface.

There didn't seem to be a way out.

_I never got to apologize._

He thought solemnly looking back on Bruce as things started going fuzzy.

Starfire.

Raven.

Cyborg.

Beast Boy.

It was almost funny now that he was dying. How he never could say the things he really wanted to.

_I never got to thank you for saving me..._

Suddenly something caught his eye. In the distance he could see two masses of flesh floating towards him. His arm twitched ever so slightly, life slowly returning to his body as he strained to make them out.

_Cyborg._

_Jericho._

They weren't moving.

Each one of them was as bruised and battered as he was sure he was but they were real. He wasn't sure if they were still alive but they were just within his reach. Then to his delight he saw Jericho slowly lift his head.

Their eyes met for a moment. Jericho's irises flashed green like deep lanterns full of sorrow. If Robin didn't know better it almost looked like a apology.

But Robin wasn't going to take goodbyes.

As long as they might still be alive, he wasn't going to give up on them.

Then as that small glitter of hope emerged, it faded just as quickly. Robin felt his stomach lurch as he realized Cyborg's weight was causing him to sink into the darkness.

_NO!_

His flesh wanted to sink into the dark quiet depths, but he wasn't ready to join it just yet._  
_

_I can't die yet. _

_Not until I save you guys._

_Not until you're safe!_

His body found new strength in that conviction alone. Swimming forward he managed to latch his arm under Cyborg's bulking underarm and using his free arm he shot his grappling hook up. He wasn't sure if he was even pointing up at this point but it was his last chance. He didn't have the strength to do anything more.

He miraculously hit something.

Noticing Jericho's small arms tightened around his neck the Titan's leader realized a second later that the smaller boy had found enough strength to swim towards him.

Now they had everybody.

Closing his eyes Robin pushed the button on his grappling hook, and the three Titans got a first hand experience of what it felt like to be reeled out of the water like a tuna.

They exploded back onto the surface, sweet air rushing through their lungs.

By some strange hand of fate the detonators that had destroyed the ceiling above them had torn through the pipes and sliced open a small exit hole giving Robin just enough space to pull them up from a otherwise watery grave. The stink of sewage had never smelled better. They were covered in small gashes and bruises thanks to the public works drain system but they were alive.

_Barely._

But alive.

"Thanks... Rob..." Cyborg wheezed as his power light slowly started flashing again. They found themselves back on the street. Robin had managed to shoot his grappling hook through the damaged hole and past a open man hole where he had latched onto a light pole.

Out of all the horrible situations he had ever been placed in the kid had never been so lucky in his life.

And Cyborg had never been so happy to see so much human waste in his life.

The sewer was completely overflowing onto the street thanks to Slade's little bomb, but they were on land. Rat shit or no.

"You saved our bacon..." Cyborg said slapping Robin's back softly. "Slade's attack earlier really damaged my system. Under all that water pressure I couldn't get my back up power source working. I really owe you one."

Coughing and sputtering Jericho could only nod in agreement.

Robin didn't try to answer. Now that they were back on land his body was letting him know how badly it was hurting. He didn't even have the strength to open his mouth. Oh damn… he was dizzy. His head was spinning, and it seemed impossible to focus on anything properly. "Cy-"

He started to raise his head before a sudden wave of nausea lurched in his stomach. Clutching his stomach the strange pain caused his legs to buckle before he sank to his knees again and started dry heave. His stomach was empty since he hadn't eaten in almost eight hours, but the lining of his throat felt covered in a strange liquid. That's when he recognized it as the metallic taste of blood. Staring at the floor he saw a small puddle of red on the floor.  
He wasn't a doctor but coughing up blood was never a good sign.  
_Crap._ He thought his teeth clenched in frustration. He tried to pick himself up off the floor but his body didn't want to work for him. It was so cold, he had never been this cold in his life.

"Robin?" Cyborg asked his voice full of worry as a splotch of thick, mucus-mixed blood landed by his feet.

Without a word Robin's body crumpled and sank completely onto the ground, his small form going limp.

"ROBIN!" Cyborg exclaimed picking Robin's head off the sewage covered cement as he quickly fell.

He was barely breathing.

For the first time in his life, Cyborg realized the person he was holding in his arms really was just a kid.

Without the mask, Robin was human. And he had almost gotten himself killed this time. Battered, and beaten Robin's chest raising up and down was the only movement he had the strength to muster. He was so pale and disheveled in the moonlight that Cyborg barely recognized him.

"Robin, speak to me man!" The older Titan snarled trying to get something out of his pal. The boy's bright blue eyes were glassy and distant, his whole body as cold as ice. Checking his pulse Cyborg could feel his heart as it fluttered in arrhythmia... when it fluttered at all.

"Don't do this to me, man!" Cyborg said picking Robin up like a rag doll. "Come on man, don't do this to me!"

Robin wanted to speak but his mouth just wouldn't move.

_I'm going into shock for making it to first base. _

_How uncool is that?_

He asked himself trying to find some humor in the situation.

_What a stupid way to get hospitalized. _

_But at least they're safe._

_They're safe..._

Despite Cyborg's shrieks and the worry in his face, Robin couldn't help his eyes from fluttering shut.

The pain stopped, everything stopped.

But for once, Robin was grateful to be swallowed up by the darkness.

"Dammit, Jericho. We need to get Robin back to Titan's Tower NOW!" Cyborg cried out as he held his smaller friend in arms tightly. "He's fading on us fast."

Nodding Jericho got to his feet.

But Cyborg didn't wait for a answer, he was already making a run for the T-car..

And that was the chance Slade was waiting for.

"You changed the plan, Slade." Jericho said coldly as he saw Slade emerge from the shadows for the third time that evening. "You could have _killed_ us!"

"I knew he wouldn't let you die." Slade answered crossing his arms.

"I can't do this, Slade." Jericho whispered miserably. "Robin is my friend."

"And he'll only suffer more until you finish it." The assassin replied. "You were getting sloppy, Joey. That's why I decided to help you along. The drug is in its final effects, if you don't finish the job poor Robin might not live long enough for you to fight with your morals."

Walking away Slade added, "The other Titans will be tearing three cities apart looking for Joker's presents, I suggest you don't waste the chance I've given you."

Clenching both fists Jericho's whole body was shaking as the villain vanished back into the night. Silent tears leaked out of his eyes as Joey stared helplessly at the cement.

_Oh Robin... you shouldn't have risked your life for me._

He thought as he let his tears fall silently onto the already drenched pavement.

To be continued...


	11. Broken Toys

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 11: Broken Toys

-Titans Tower-

Jericho tugged on Cyborg's arms, his eyes filled with worry as the larger boy finished hooking up a IV into Robin's arm.

"Yeah. He's stable now." Cyborg answered seeing the question burning on his friend's face. Gently setting the injured boy's limb to his side he moved away from the bed and walked to the medical room's computer. Staring up at the screen he moved to each of Robin's x-rays and vital signs."I don't get it though. His diagnostics are all normal."

Taking a deep breath he looked back at the half dead youth on the medical bed. Now that he had been prepped and cleaned of sewage and blood Robin really did look like just a normal teenager sleeping soundly. His hair was soft and loosely spilled out on the pillow in a manner that made him look almost gentle as compared to the normally intimidating tousled look he achieved with all that hair mousse.

And at least the color had returned to his face thanks to a hot spray down by the medical shower. When Cyborg had first gotten them home, Robin had been as gray as a corpse and about as responsive as one too. But while he was looking better the Teen Wonder hadn't so much as moved since they had arrived home.

"That little trip down the rat soup water slide left us all with a few love marks, but there's nothing serious." Cyborg muttered staring at the charts. "Robin made sure he protected his vitals from any real harm. He's got some cuts and a few bruised ribs but other than that nothing should be wrong with him. But his pulse is still low, and his vital signs are all showing signs of severe shock." Zoning in on his brain waves Cyborg added. "There's a few abnormalities up here too, the oxygen level being pumped to his brain is way below normal." He shrugged that off. "But considering each of us almost drowned it's not that unusual... I guess."

"... Cy..."

At first Cyborg wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but the twitch of Robin's hand made him race across the room.

"Robin?" Cyborg asked.

The hand twitched again ever so slightly.

"Don't ever do that to me again." He half snarled as he saw Robin's eyes open ever so slightly. "You nearly gave us all heart attacks!"

"... the ... city ..." Robin whispered his voice barely audible.

"I haven't heard anything from the other Titans." Cyborg answered. "But we'll stop Slade and the Joker."

"Cy... I'm sorry." The black haired boy choked squeezing his eyes shut in a mix of pain and guilt.

"Man, I'll knock you stupid if you keep apologizing." Cyborg smiled gently dinging his friend on the top of his head. "If anything you're trying too hard. Save some of the heroics for the rest of us. You keep making us look bad."

Robin weakly let out a laugh.

It was quickly silenced as he let out a small muffled cry of pain. His small hand shot up to his head as if something was burning a hole in his temples. "GAHHH!"

"ROBIN!" Cyborg exclaimed grabbing his shoulders.

Robin's small body shook for a few seconds before it became deathly still again.

"Dammit, I think he's having a mild seizure." Cyborg choked to Jericho. "Hand me the medical bag over there!"

Walking past the bag, Jericho put his hands on Robin's temples. Light emitted from his strange green eyes and his mind linked with Robin's causing the two to be enveloped in a bright aura.

Almost instantly the computer screen flashed green as Robin's vitals returned to normal.

"How... how exactly did you learn to do that?" Cyborg stammered as Robin's breathing and pulse returned to normal.

"Cyborg, Slade's hidden the canister somewhere in the city." Jericho said turning to him. "Leave Robin to me. Jump City still needs you."

"But Robin-" Cyborg blurted out.

"You're a hero, Cyborg." Jericho murmured. "And a hero has to put the needs of the weak before his own. That's what separates you from everybody else. Without you Jump City is doomed. Besides we can't _both_ help Robin."

It was a hard truth, but he was absolutely right.

"Grrr. Fine, I'll be back as soon as I can." Cyborg muttered racing out of the room. "You better be alright when all this is over, Rob." He said under his breath.

Jericho didn't even bother lifting his head as the older Titan left.

_I have no right to use the word hero._ He thought as he held onto Robin's fragile mind. _I know I'll never be able to call myself one again._

-Gotham City-

"This place sure is... uh... cheery." Beast Boy stuttered as he backed away from a ominous looking gargoyle. "I can't imagine why Robin ever left."

"Sometimes a place does not always have to look nice to hold warm memories." Starfire retorted as she scanned the interstate for any sign of the tankard Slade had described.

"Yeah... I guess you're right." Beast Boy said with a sweat drop hoping he hadn't insulted Starfire in some way. Tamaran wasn't exactly a place you'd call homey either.

"It's a little past your curfew, wouldn't you say?" A dark, deep voice asked from the shadows.

"EEE!" The green changeling shrieked barreling into Starfire as the tall, looming figure of the Batman materialized from the darkness.

"HOLY COW, it's him!" Beast Boy exclaimed from behind Starfire's shoulder. "It's Batman!" Zipping out from his hiding place Beast Boy couldn't contain himself, "I'm a huge fan! And I've been wanting to meet you since I first joined the Doom Patrol, Mr. Batman sir." Fingering his chin he sized up the grim, looming Dark Knight, "You know you're taller than you look on TV, and Robin's always talking about-"

"Robin?" Batman repeated before it suddenly all made sense. Crossing his arms the imposing man seemed unreadable for a few seconds. His cape spilling out over his shoulders he reasoned, "So that explains why you two are a little far from Jump City."

"Yes sir." Starfire said as she pulled something out of her pocket and placed it in Batman's hand. "It is a long story. But Robin told us we could count on his friend. This city is in grave danger."

"I'm all ears." Batman said solemnly as he clutched Robin's communicator in his hand.

-Metropolis-

"So... you really think that the truck will pass by here?" Kid Flash asked.

"Mm hmm." Raven replied from her spot mediating as they waited patiently on the Metropolis bridge.

"You're sure?" Kid Flash asked kicking his feet in utter boredom.

"Mm hmm." Raven repeated cracking one eye open in annoyance.

"Che, you know it's a good thing you're such a great conversationalist." Kid Flash muttered. "Or else this might be really boring."

"Flattery won't get you anywhere." Raven smiled.

-Jump City-

_A robin really is a pretty bird._ Dick thought to himself as he gently stroked the creature's feathers.

_My little robin._ His mother's voice cooed in the back of his head. _Flying so free... so untamed._

_Not yet you're not._ He heard his own voice chuckle. _You're not free yet._

Suddenly Robin found himself staring face to face with himself.

The other Robin's lips twisted into a thin smile as he reached out to touch the robin perched on Dick's shoulder. _You have no idea what it's really like. To really be free. To have no regrets, no fears. No dreams. To become something more._

_More huh? _Robin asked his eyes narrowing. _No thanks. If being free means not having dreams, I'll stay caged. _

The other Robin only smiled.

_Sticks and stones. _

Walking towards Robin, the darker version of himself caught his arm. The little bird on Robin's shoulder flapped its wing in shock as it was jolted from its perch but remained on his arm. Pulling back Robin was floored by the monstrous strength the other boy had. _Let go of me!_

_Admit it. You and I are the same. You try so hard to hide me, to lock me away, to pretend I don't exist. But I consume you. I'm the reason you're still alive at the end of each and every day. _The dark Robin smirked.

_I'll admit you're sick._ The first Robin snapped as he still tried in vain to pull his arms away from his darker self. _But you're not me._

_No, not this time, Dicky. You're not getting away this time. You can't fight me off anymore. I'm not just going to go away. _His other version said with a sick grin. _In fact, I'm never going anywhere ever again._

Robin let out a choke as the darker version of himself literally passed right through him. He sank to his knees and shrieked as pain engulfed his every cell. He had never experienced anything as agonizing as this in all his life. Slade's probes, Poison Ivy's darts, bullets, he'd take any of them over this.

It hurt, it burned. He felt like his very soul was being ripped apart.

Then everything went numb.

He didn't know how long he stood there but inside him time no longer mattered. Slowly Robin lifted his head up.

The world and everyone in it seemed to disappear.

Just like that... it all didn't matter. He had forgotten why he had ever cared in the first place.

He could still remember everything but something inside of him just _changed_. Like the off switch had been flipped on his heart. A small voice screamed inside of him but he could barely hear it. It was something he could no longer remember, from a part of himself he didn't understand anymore.

The robin on his shoulder let out a soft chirp.

Smiling gently Robin reached out and stroked it's soft feathers one last time.

_They really are pretty birds._

Then the ground splattered with blood.

Meanwhile...

Jericho released Robin's mind. It had been three hours and he was exhausted. Panting the smaller boy sank his head down onto the hospital bed. He knew his guilty conscious wouldn't allow him the chance to sleep but he had to shut his eyes even if only for a moment.

_I'm so sorry._ He thought miserably closing his eyes.

"Ugn... Joey, you're heavy." Robin's voice groaned.

Jericho's eyes shot open and he whirled to face the boy on the hospital bed. "Robin!" He exclaimed his normally ghost like voice almost as high as a normal person's. For a moment he clung to small glimmer of hope that the evil deed he had committed had failed.

"How long was I out?" Robin asked bringing a hand to his face as he rubbed the sleepiness from his eyes.

"Only about three hours." Jericho replied his heart racing with that feeble hope. "Not long at all."

"Long enough." Robin stated staring calmly down at his sheets. "If it was enough time for you to finish screwing with my head."

That alone made all Jericho's hopes shatter.

Sitting up, any signs of being sick were long since gone from the older boy's face. He looked odd, his whole body language was stiff and cold. The way he moved didn't even look human but more like a mechanical toy lack of all emotion.

And Robin's eyes were so pale.

Before the accident they had been such a warm blue. Now they stared at Jericho like glittering pieces of ice.

"Robin..." He whispered his stomach churning with guilt. The gentle smile was gone. Everything that made Robin who he was seemed twisted now. This creature beside him looked like Robin, but it didn't seem to have a soul.

_Oh Robin... what have I done?_ The blond boy asked in his head.

"Jericho." Robin said softly his eyes welling with concern. "Whatever happened to make you do this, we can work this out. After all we're friends." Reaching out he gently clasped his friend's shoulder.

Jericho could only stare up at the boy with such sad eyes. _What have I done?_

Robin's other hand snapped forward closing tightly around Jericho's throat.

It happened so fast Jericho didn't even have time to cry to his feet Robin only tightened his grip.  
The hand firmly closed around Jericho was inhumanly strong even for a meta-human as his fingertips crunched down on his jugular. But he wasn't trying to strangle him, Jericho realized. Robin's lips curled into a sick smile his hair falling into his unholy blue eyes. No, he wasn't trying to strangle him... he was trying to crush his windpipe.

Jericho's feet slid off the ground, kicking to and fro with a panicked shout. He peered down over his blackening vision, watching his friend's lip curl in a violent, satisfied smirk, his nose crinkle with blank, murderous intent. "Rob -" Jericho gasped, his hands tightening around Robin's wrist. He just wasn't strong enough to stop him. _At this rate..._ He coughed briskly, a clot of blood erupting onto Robin's knuckles. _My windpipe...!_

"You look uncomfortable, Jericho." Robin said with mock concern as his grip tightened. "Having trouble breathing?"

Jericho's eyes widened, and a slimy, slithering grip tightened about the center of his chest. _He's going to kill me._

He heard a voice screaming, but he was having trouble forming words - in his head, he was screaming for help. His nails began clawing into the skin on Robin's hand. He felt blood but he still clawed, trying to land a foot on Robin's arm or something of the like. But he was held too high, too far away by the tips of Robin's fingers - it was too easy for someone as skilled as Robin to see it coming.

He only had one option.

Meeting Robin's eyes Jericho used the last of his strength to enter Robin's body.

Letting out a snarl Robin sank to his knees as Joey entered his flesh then popped out of him from the other side. Jericho didn't have the strength to hold onto Robin for any longer. And he was terrified to get too deep into the older boy's mind.

But Robin's recovered too fast for Joey to make a actual retreat.

The whole situation felt like something from a bad horror film. Backing into the corner Jericho realized it was only going to get worse. He was at a dead end. The only thing that lay behind him was a small pane of glass and a cliff drop into the rocks below.

And to the front of him was a monster.

Robin's form lifted itself up off the ground fitting a corpse rising from the dead.

He was crouched like a cat and as he straightened himself up, his torn uniform and cape spilled out over his arms. The R had been ripped off his body from the sewer and his garment lay in tatters exposing his pale chest and part of his shoulder. His blue eyes were narrowed into slits, mouth twisted into a snarl. He was breathing hard, as he tried to bite back the pain that stung through his body from that mind attack.  
"That wasn't_ nice _Joey."  
If those words had been spoken with any more malice, it would have had the ability to strike someone dead.

"You were in on it all along." Robin deduced taking a step towards him. "It makes sense now. Slade provided, Joker delivered, and you had to make sure it all went according to plan."

Wheezing Joey could only nod as he backed away, trying to catch his breath.

"You don't understand, Robin." Jericho choked. "If I didn't agree to help Slade, he was going to kill my little sister."

"What did you _do_ to me?" Robin asked sliding his fist into the wall before taking another step towards him.

"I don't know." Jericho said miserably as he sank to the ground. His powers were completely tapped out and he didn't have the strength or the heart to run anymore. Hanging his head he stared at the ground. "I don't know. Slade didn't tell me what Joker's girlfriend did. But I won't run from you, Robin. I deserve whatever you have planned for me."

Robin stopped cold for a moment, as if the word sorry had somehow managed to turn him into a broken toy.

He asked softly his voice almost childlike. "What...?"

Jericho crouched there silently, his mournfully green eyes speaking for him. He had used all up his words, all his excuses. There was nothing more he could say. But it was obvious he had given up.

Robin's pale blue eyes looked confused for a moment, before they narrowed again.

"Thanks for making my job easier then." Robin smiled. Grabbing Jericho with both hands he shoved the boy into the window. Harder and harder he pushed until he could feel the glass crack behind the smaller boy's back. Then all too easily it shattered.

Robin didn't let go of him just yet. Holding Jericho's life by his collar, Robin watched the smaller boy struggle as he dangled over the jagged cliff side.

"You're going to get a first hand idea of what a rock feels like." The Teen Wonder said with a gentle smile. "If you're lucky you'll hit the rocks before you can drown."

"ROBIN!"

Turning towards the voice Robin was surprised to see Cyborg standing in the doorway, with a small canister in his hand.

"What 's going on?" The larger boy asked as he stared at the mounds of broken glass and shattered medical equipment. Dropping Jericho back onto the medical room floor, Robin's only answer was a frown. Crossing his arms he looked as disgruntled as a child that had to stop playing a game.

"Looks like you got the canister." He said coldly eying the can in Cyborg's hand.

"It was on the last truck to the plant." Cyborg said still eying the damaged room. "Jeez man, what the hell happened here?" He turned to Robin and gave his friend a hard look, "What were you doing?"

Robin didn't answer but the response he gave made his older friend's blood run cold.

The Titans' leader stood under the moonlight, his lips twisting into the cruelest smile Cyborg had ever seen.

"Just tying up loose ends."

To be continued...


	12. Changing Sides

**Author's Rantings: I'm so sorry. I'm the god of the typos. Rereading this chapter last night, I realized how completely crappy my penmanship is when writing something at 4:30 am. So this is the edited version. Also... I'm not really going to bring too much love interest stuff into the story, it's not relevant to what I want to focus on and I enjoy Robin's emotional constipation when it comes to deciding which one he likes better, Raven or Starfire. All the same, here's just a little Raven/Robin interaction for the all kiddies back home that like that stuff. Enjoy.**

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 12: Changing Sides

-Gotham City-

"I see." Batman said quietly sinking into his own thoughts. "So that's what was stolen."

"Stolen sir?" Beast Boy asked staring up at the looming figure of the dark knight.

"Two weeks ago Lexcorp _lost_ a shipment of a chemical they had been testing for the government. No police report was filed. And the chemical's details were labeled classified." Batman explained.

Getting a slightly smug look on his face Beast Boy could guess why. "I get it. If word got out that some big shot like Lex Luthor had a government experiment stolen by someone like Slade, kissing all that grant money goodbye would be least of his worries. He'd be the laughing stock of the super villain world."

"I guess there's no honor even with thieves these days." The Dark Knight muttered.

"But if the theft was not reported, than Slade and the Joker cannot be punished." Starfire reasoned.

"For now let's concentrate on finding that canister." Batman replied walking towards the building ledge.

"Yeah, " Beast Boy nodded as he followed behind him. Putting a finger in his mouth his mind wandered past Gotham's dark buildings. "I wonder how the others are doing."

"I too worry for the others." Starfire said solemnly floating to Beast Boy's side. "Robin still had the sick when we parted ways."

"Yeah he looked awful." Beast Boy nodded. "Bet he didn't even have time to wash the cooties off his mouth from the Joker's girlfriend." Perking up he smiled. "But don't worry, Star. He's Robin. He'll be fine."

"_What_ did you say?" Batman asked stopping short.

"It was just a kiss." Beast Boy grinned his eyebrows waggling. "You guys must have to deal with that whole tangled enemy turned love interest thing all the time."

But Batman wasn't listening. Easily lifting the green changeling off the ground with one hand the Dark Knight's mind was whirling with the safety of his ward.

"CALL THE TITANS, _NOW."_

_-_Jump City-

"Who's a genius?" Kid Flash grinned as he and Raven returned Titan's Tower. "C'mon admit it, it was like poetry. I wish I could have watched it all myself."

"Heating your molecules so that the entire sewage shipment evaporated wasn't genius, Flash." Raven said her eyes narrowing. "It was lucky."

"Luck, genius same thing. Jeez, it worked out didn't it? The city is saved, crisis averted. You worry about the what ifs too much. " Kid Flash muttered crossing his arms. This girl was just too tough a crowd for his tastes. "Robin, you need to tell Miss Gloom and Doom to lighten up-"

Stopping short he and Raven let out gasps.

The common room of Titan's Towers was completely destroyed.

No, worse than that.

It was a battlefield.

Laser marks scarred the walls.

The curtains were torn.

All the windows and light panels were shattered the glass strewn across the room.

And a red sticky substance was streaked across the carpet.

Both of their hearts sank into their stomachs.

That was blood.

"ROBIN?" Flash cried out immediately running deeper into the Tower. "CYBORG? JERICHO?"

The cold feeling of dread gripped at his chest. "Slade and Joker must have gotten here first." He choked to Raven as she followed.

"GUYS!" KF shrieked his voice cracking with fear.

"... bzzzt."

"Flash, over here." Raven called as she pulled a large form up from the rubble. The strange electronic grinding noise was coming from the mass. "It's Cyborg." Raven explained her normal monotone slightly higher in worry. "He's not hurt. They just shut him off."

He had been dismantled into several pieces, all of which were thrown around the common room.

The eerie part was the perfect way it had been done, as if someone knew exactly which buttons to press.

Quickly collecting the parts, it only took Kid Flash and the dark empath a moment to reconnect Cyborg's system.

"Unnnn." Cyborg groaned as his red eye flickered on. Sitting up he put a hand on his head. "That's the third time tonight I've felt like I was hit by a truck." Suddenly everything registered again. Letting out a gasp he whirled around and took in his surroundings. No it hadn't been a bad dream.

"Where's Jericho?" Cyborg asked reaching out and clutching Raven's shoulder.

"We haven't found him yet." Raven stuttered.

"FIND HIM, _NOW!" _Cyborg screamed his grip tightening on Raven.

"Cyborg, calm down." Raven said firmly trying to keep her emotions down as she felt the fear radiate through him. "Robin and Jericho are still missing. Whoever did this-"

"_Robin_ did this." Cyborg muttered staring at the ground.

Looking Raven straight in the eye he breathed. "There's something wrong with him, Rae. The look on his face..." Shuddering he closed his eyes. "That wasn't the Robin I know."

"What are you talking about Cy?" Flash asked. "What do you mean Robin did this?"

"I'M SAYING: **ROBIN** TRASHED MY TOWER, **ROBIN** DISABLED MY SYSTEM, AND **ROBIN** JUST TRIED TO GUT JERICHO LIKE A FISH. Did you catch it this time or do you want me to repeat that?" Cyborg snarled.

"Okay, okay." Flash exclaimed throwing his hands up in defense. "But _you're_ in no shape to go after him."

"Just find Jericho." Cyborg said clutching his arms together. "If Robin finds him first-" He couldn't finish his sentence, it was too painful. "Just watch yourselves."

Taking a deep breath Raven got to her feet. "You look for Jericho, Flash. I'm going after Robin."

Biting back the pain that surged through his slightly damaged censors Cyborg got to his feet and slowly limped to the security box. "I'm locking down the Tower. That way no one can get in, or _out_."

The seriousness in his voice made Flash's blood run a little cold.

Running to the lower levels of the tower, Flash tried to keep his cool. Comparing Cyborg to Robin, who was smaller, weaker and had no powers to speak of it was no contest who would naturally be the winner. So he had a hard time imagining someone as powerful as Cyborg being afraid of the smaller Titan.

But Cyborg was scared.

"Robin, what the hell is going on?" He asked under his breath. In all the years he had known the guy, he had always liked him. Few people had half the brains and a third of the heart as Robin.

Maybe that was why Cyborg was so scared. Heck, he was scared too at the this point.

Robin always did have brains.

And that was probably the most dangerous weapon out there.

"Man, why'd I have to pick the dungeon level?" He whimpered to himself, now throughly creeped out.

Closing Robin's room, Raven tried to bite back the stinging surge of fear clutching her throat.

His room had been the most damaged of all.

All of his perfectly organized police articles were torn to pieces, a small fire was burning in his trash can as the remnants of what looked like photos disappeared into the blaze.

Weights were scattered, his weapons tossed to the side and his beloved punching bag had been unhinged and was bleeding sand onto the floor.

Robin had taken a birdarang to just about everything he owned.

Feathers from the pillows were thrown on the ground, the bedding was ripped.

And each and every one of his costumes had been slashed apart.

She couldn't take any more of that room. Disappearing into the wall she tried to distance herself as far away from that ghastly sight as she could.

_Robin, where are you?_

Raven didn't have to look far.

She could feel the strange energy coming from the top of the Tower. An energy that could only belong to one person.

Raven emerged from the darkness and stepped out into the night sky.

To her surprise the boy in question was sitting very casually on the ledge, whistling a soft tune as he stared up at the stars.

She took a step forward, his back was to her but she could tell he knew she was watching him.

Trying to find her voice Raven was shaking in fear. There had only been a small number of times she had ever found herself this afraid.

He was so confused, she could feel it flowing into her body so intensely it almost drowned her senses. It was as if he was completely lost.

But there was no fear or panic to follow that.

He seemed dead to those emotions.

That wasn't normal. When you're confused, you get scared. It was a normal reaction.

But Robin's mind was like a cold slab of ice.

"Robin." She breathed reaching a hand out to him as she took another step.

"Oh, hi Rae." Robin said calmly turning his head to face her.

"Nice night isn't it?" He smiled warmly his black hair falling gracefully into his eyes as he spoke.

His completely unmasked eyes.

Raven looked at the boy, staring at the face she had spent night's trying to piece together. For two years, he had ate, slept, and bathed with that wretched black mask on. And now here he was completely unarmed staring at her with the two most beautiful blue eyes she had ever seen.

Something was very wrong here.

Getting to his feet, Robin crossed his arms and frowned. "Hmmmm." He thought hard for a moment but it just wasn't doing any good.

"I can't remember." He said shaking his head.

"Remember?" Raven asked blinking.

"Ah!" He perked up for a second before he sighed again. "Damn. I almost had it for a second, but I forgot again."

"Robin, there's something wrong with you." Raven stated reaching out to touch his shoulder. He didn't resist her.

"Yeah." He nodded meeting her eyes. "I'm not really myself right now."

Those eyes were so pale Raven felt like she was being frozen alive just staring at them. As beautiful as they were, they were so hard to look at.

The light refused to shine off them.

Even in rabid wolves the light would still reflect off their eyes. But Robin's were like cold pools of ice, vacant and unyielding. The moonlight only got swallowed in his stare.

"Robin, let me help you." Raven asked placing both of her hands on his shoulders. "Whatever happened, we can fix it. You just have to trust me."

Taking her hands in his he squeezed them both gently and gave her a soft, grateful smile.

Before he knocked her backwards, kicking her legs out with a sweeping motion.

As they both fell to the hard ground, Raven couldn't cry out as he pinned her to the cold cement. He held her arm tightly behind her causing the slightest movement she made to be incredibly painful. If she moved away from him, he could easily break her arm. So she stayed where she was.

"I do trust you Raven." Robin said sincerely.

They stayed like that for several seconds as Robin simply stared at her, a small frown etched on his face. He didn't get it. She could have used her powers to break free from him. If she wanted to, she could probably easily kill him. He wasn't stupid.

But why she didn't confused him.

And it made him all the more frustrated when he realized it had to do with the thing he had forgotten.

Leaning down he lowered himself until he was only inches away from her face.

Wincing Raven closed her eyes waiting for him to strike her. She couldn't find the will power to move her body.

This wasn't Robin.

This wasn't her friend.

It wasn't the same boy who had chased her past the ends of the world, and into hell itself.

Robin had always believed in her. Even when she couldn't believe in herself.

A part of her felt disgusted with herself that she could call herself a hero and be this helpless.

But she couldn't hurt him.

All she could feel was rage. The Joker would pay for this. Slade would pay for this.

For the first time in her life, she truly knew what it felt like to hate someone as much as she hated her father.

"When did you get so weak, Raven?" Robin asked calmly interuppting her.

Opening her eyes Raven stared up at the boy who was leaning on top of her.

"This is the part where your supposed to make me wish I was never born." He explained calmly. "You don't kneel for anyone, Raven."

_When **did** I let myself get so weak? _She realized.

_At least when it involves him._

She wasn't going to think about that now. Raven could wrestle with herself and the weird love triangle she had become a part of later. The strange feelings she had developed for her friend would have to wait. Right now she just had to get through to him.

"You're not well, Robin." Raven coughed. "I want to help you."

"You can't help me this time, Raven." Robin said softly brushing a strand of hair out of her eyes for her. Then he simply let go.

"You know I'm not even sure if I'm sick." He stated getting up off her as he walked back towards the ledge. "It's like some weird new kind of freedom."

Inching her closer with a finger he breathed, "Why I almost feel like I could fly."

His body language indicated he wanted her to see whatever he was looking at from the ledge. Walking towards him Raven rubbed her sore arm and lowered her eyes to make out what he was pointing at.

"It's too bad Joey doesn't feel the same way." Robin commented.

It was then she felt it. Down below them was a slight sliver of life emitting several stories from the top. Racing to the ledge she could barely make out Jericho's bloody still form as it hung several yards below them.

Robin had beat him within a inch of his life, and then hung him on the ledge of a window as if he were nothing more than a kite.

"Don't worry, he's alive." Robin said leaning next to her to get a good look at Jericho. "For the moment, anyways."

"Robin..." Raven choked his name tasting bitter on her tongue. Jericho was so bloody and torn that if it hadn't been for his soft curls, she wouldn't have been able to tell it was him.

"You can't help me, Raven." Robin said again climbing onto the ledge. "You and I know there's only one person who can."

"No Robin!" Raven snarled as it hit her like a ton of bricks, "You can't go to Slade! He's the bastard that did this to you in the first place!"

"I know." Robin said simply. "But at this point you have two choices. You can try to stop me or you can stop Jericho." Throwing a birdarang at Jericho he cut through the small bit of his pink tunic that was keeping him on the ledge.

Like a slipping stone Jericho's body vaulted down towards the rocks.

"I'd decide fast." Robin called before he dived off the building himself.

"ROBIN!" Raven exclaimed as she watched the boy fall.

But she didn't have time to waste.

Soaring into the sky, she plummeted downwards and caught Jericho's small body before he dropped into the ocean. He was like a little bird, his body so broken she was afraid a joltly movement would shatter him to pieces. "How could you do this...?" She couldn't help but ask herself.

Turning her gaze upward she barely managed to catch Robin's form as it fell from the tower.

At this rate he was going to hit the rocks himself.

"What is he crazy...?" She choked before she realized she answered her own question.

"ROBIN!" She called again trying to find some way to help him before he hit.

The boy waited until he could feel the ocean spray against his face before he extended his grappling hook up into the cliff side. It was then she realized he was perfoming the training experiment he had been attempting for months.

She could only watch as the trick he had failed hundreds of times before was completed effortlessly. He vaulted back up the cliff and was over the ledge and into the shadows before she could blink. The whiplash alone from the fall should have killed him.

But then it was amazing what one could do when they didn't fear for their lives.

She couldn't follow him. Feeling Jericho's weak life force she knew that if she didn't get him immediate medical attention soon he was done for.

Silent rage shook through her body as Raven held tightly to Jericho and landed back on the roof.

Taking her out her communicator she tried to find her voice.

"Cyborg. He's gone." Was all she could manage.

To be continued...


	13. In the Rain

**Disclaimer: Still don't own Teen Titans. They belong to DC.**

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 13: In the Rain

-Jump City-

He could barely hear the static over the pouring rain.

"...Robin..."

More static.

"ROBIN, PLEASE ANSWER ME!" Stafire's worried voice cried out from his communicator.

Staring at the yellow thing in his hands, Robin grip tightened on it for just a moment before he let it fall carelessly to the ground.

"Sorry Starfire." He said aloud as the communicator continued to blast her worried pleas for a answer.

"I'm not really Robin anymore."

Even if he wanted to be with them... he was barely a human let alone a hero at this point. There was no escaping that fact until he could find his mind again.

So for the moment, they were on opposing teams.

Walking away he left the small device to its fate as the rain and mud drowned out the alien's worried cries.

The rain was falling so hard at this point Robin could hardly see ahead of him. A million icy daggers slid down onto his skin as the sensation of warmth now seemed like just a memory.

But then he was forgetting a lot of things today.

He lost track of how far he had walked, or how long he had been out in this weather. None of it mattered now.

The driving force that seemed to rule his every move, every thought, his reason for living.

He couldn't remember it.

He had lost his purpose.

So he walked.

He knew where he had to go, and he knew what he had to do. But the why seemed fuzzy now. In the back of his head he told himself he had to fix what had happened to him. If he found Slade, he would convince him to reverse whatever Jericho did to his mind.

And Robin was sure that in his state of mind, he could be _very _convincing.

_But why...?_

Why was it worth fighting for?

Clutching his head he silently cursed. Voices murmured in his head, faces flashed in his eyes, and his heart hurt again in that strange place he could no longer reach. Chalk it up to hypothermia and exhaustion to make being crazy even more fun.

But Robin just kept walking.

_The strong have to protect the weak, Robin._

Bruce had told him that so many times. Now it sounded like a broken record from within his own head.

_Why... though?_

Robin thought.

His hair and clothes were plastered to his body from the chill. Crazy or not, he had endured quite a intense 24 hours. The gashes from the sewer, almost drowning in a sea of feces, then collapsing due to that damn poison, and to top it off that little stunt he had pulled to get out of the Titan's Tower. His body was far from being one hundred percent and almost every part of it hurt.

But he refused to listen to it. One good thing he realized about being completely off your rocker: Pain much like Reason just didn't seem that hard a thing to turn the other cheek to.

He passed the broken warehouse that once been his prison.

Past the canyons where Slade and him had had so many fights.

Even into the underground where Terra had breathed her last.

No Slade.

He wasn't going to make this game of cat and mouse easy.

At this point mud caked Robin's legs and elbows making it hard to move around and his body was aching with overuse.

Any sane man would stop, admit they were in no condition to continue this man hunt and rest.

But he was hardly sane.

-Gotham City-

"Robin, please-" Starfire choked into the communicator for what was surely the eighty ninth time before Batman's gloved hand tightened around the speaker silencing her.

Firmly but with a sliver of kindness in his masked eyes Batman only shook his head.

Robin was not going to answer.

"Starfire."

A voice suddenly replied from the communicator.

But it was not the person she was hoping for.

Flipping the device open she was met with Raven's face instead.

"You and Beast Boy need to get back to the Tower." Raven said quietly her solemn features even more grim than usual.

"But Robin is missing, and we have not located the canister that Slade-" Starfire protested.

"Star, the canisters were another decoy." Cyborg repiled his own image replacing Raven's on Starfire's communicator. "Slade wanted Robin. The Joker's girl must have pumped Robin full of that chemical Slade was bragging about and Jericho was sent as a double agent to make sure it worked."

"What are you saying?" Starfire asked.

"Robin's lost his mind." Cyborg said his face burning with frustration and grief. "Tonight he almost killed Jericho." Closing his eyes the large boy spat through clenched teeth. "I never thought Robin, _our_ Robin would do it. But he almost took a life."

"Wait. None of this makes sense! Even if Robin did go cuckoo for cocoa puffs he wouldn't hurt anyone!" Beast Boy cried out. "He's _Robin. _"

"I don't want to believe it either." Raven said her eyes narrowing in self disgust. "But Robin's completely unstable." Unable to look Starfire in the eye as she said this, the demon girl breathed. "What little of his mind is still intact is only running on pure instinct. He's just as dangerous as Slade right now."

"But-" Beast Boy stammered.

"Look man. It only took Robin a hour to dismantle me, the Tower, and Joey's face." Cyborg muttered. "Right now we need all the help we can get. Just come back as soon as you can. We all need to figure something out before he hurts himself or anyone else."

"But surely, this must be some mistake-" Starfire began. She was standing rigidly her movements doll like and detached as she tried to take all of this in. Hearing Robin commit such evils was like hearing someone speak another language. "Perhaps the Slade is forcing Robin to join him like last time?"

"It's not like last time, Star." Cyborg answered. "He's not our Robin anymore."

"That's not entirely true." Raven commented turning to Cyborg. She had only seen a sliver of how broken Robin's mind was and right now he was capable of anything.

Well _almost_ anything. One thing still bugged her.

"I'm not one hundred percent on this, but I don't think Robin is completely gone." Raven stated. "Whatever Slade's done to his mind has turned Robin into a monster but he's still trying to hold on to small parts of himself."

"What makes you figure?" Cyborg asked.

"When you tried to come between Jericho and Robin, Robin could have easily short circuited you." Raven explained. "He knows all of your weaknesses. But he didn't. He only shut you off. For someone who's supposedly running on only instinct, that's a odd thing to do."

"So you're saying he was protecting me?" Cyborg asked flatly. "It sure didn't feel like it."

"I wouldn't take it that far." Raven said calmly. "But I do think that despite Slade's plans, and the fact that Robin _is_ insane... he's not completely gone yet."

"Then there is hope?" Starfire quivered.

Staring at the alien girl Raven knew what feelings were swimming through Starfire, since they were tearing her apart too. "I want to believe that we can help him, but I don't know." Raven said honestly.

Biting her lips, Starfire stared at the ground.

It took her several minutes before she could find her voice again.

This time Robin was not being held captive by some madman. And she was unable to grasp how to deal with this situation. In her home world of Tamaran she had learned to fix her problems by embracing her emotions and simply raging at the problem. Such treachery as what Slade had done was something that was unknown to her. With the few exceptions of cases like her sister, Tamarians were very straight forward and honest people.

This was a situation she felt truly helpless in.

And that helplessness terrified her. Fear welled in her chest and she shook in silent grief and rage. But to her shock Batman's strong hand slowly clasped around her tan shoulder. He did not meet her eyes, but his iron grip like his presence assured her he was there.

That alone gave her some small courage.

_"If you need help, call **him**_." Robin's voice whispered in the back of her head. _"He won't let you down."_

It was strange but she could now understand how Robin could have such confidence in that statement.

"Then you don't know if you can even cure Robin?" Beast Boy asked Raven.

"This isn't a magic spell. Even if we manage to find Robin, there's no telling we'll be able to help him." Raven answered.

"A chance is better than nothing." A dark voice said sternly. Walking away from the two Titans in his city the Batman replied. "If you want to believe in something, believe in it. Just because something may be a lost cause, doesn't mean you can't believe in it."

Batman always did have that uncanny ability to make people feel uncomfortable with their own weakness.

It was silent after that while each Titan battled with their own fears and doubts

But what he said was the same as Robin.

_"How do you do it, Robin?" Raven had asked him after her father had been sent back to his own realm. She had heard his excuses about finding the inspiration for hoping through her. But she wasn't convinced. "How can you just believe that everything will always work out?" _

_"If you want to believe in something, you just believe in it." Robin had smiled. "For me, someone I admire once told me that there are times when you have to believe in the things that might not be true." Putting his hands on his head casually he shrugged. "So I believe."_

_"People may not be worth trusting, and money and power really may mean everything in the scheme of things, and you know good might lose to evil sometimes... but if I didn't always believe that things will work out, I wouldn't be able to call myself a hero." He had said with that ever patient voice of his. "And if I didn't always believe in you guys, I'd have no right to call myself a Titan. Or your friend." _

Her fists shaking slightly Raven broke the silence. "I'm not giving up on Robin."

"I am not as well." Starefire agreed.

"None of us are." Cyborg retorted. "We're a team, no matter what. And that's the way we stay."

And suddenly just like that the tension cleared and the four felt like Titans again.

"What about the boy?" Batman asked. "The one you said Slade sent as a double agent."

"He'll live if that's what you mean." Cyborg sighed answering the Dark Knight. "Old Rob did quite a number on him once he realized Jericho was working for Slade."

"But Jericho's on the good side! That's the part I don't understand!" Beast Boy exclaimed cutting Cyborg off as he grabbed Starfire's communicator. "He's our friend! He wouldn't blackmail us to work for Slade. This has got to be some joke!"

"It's not a joke, Beast Boy. Slade cut him a offer he couldn't refuse." Raven explained trying to keep her voice as steady as possible.

Behind her Cyborg and Kid Flash's dead silence only made it all the more real.

"But I trusted him." Beast Boy stammered before he clenched his fist. "Damnit, _we _trusted him! How could he do this to us!"

"Calm down, BB." Cyborg's voice breathed. Beast Boy knew better than any of the Titans what it felt like to be betrayed by a friend because of Slade's twisted devices. And he still was a little raw from the last time. Beast Boy probably couldn't bear the thought of Slade taking any more important people away from him.

"Jericho didn't have a choice." Raven said softly. After patching Jericho's wounds and fixing his broken body she had had no choice but to peek into his mind to try to fill in the blanks of what had happened. Finding out what little Jericho actually knew about Slade's plans made her fury all the stronger.

"Slade traded Jericho, Robin's life for his little sister's. If Joey didn't do exactly what Slade said, he would have killed her." Raven muttered. "Under the circumstances, we can't blame Joey too much for his actions." Running a hand through her dark locks she looked at the ground and muttered. "We've all done things we regret trying to protect the people we care about."

Averting his eyes Beast Boy could only nod.

Yeah, he could guess that was one thing they all did have in common.

"Well now that we know what's wrong with Robin, and we know what Slade and the Joker really wanted how are we going to stop them?" Beast Boy asked.

"Yes, we must also stop Robin from hurting himself and others." Starfire agreed.

"Just follow the Joker." Batman stated interuppting their conversation. "Slade may be used to covering his tracks, but it's not the Joker's style."

Laughing weakliy Beast Boy tried to salvage his sense of humor."Yeah he does kinda seem the type that would leave a whoopie cushion calling card just for using the toliet."

"Good to know we have all that sorted out. Just get back here as soon as you can." Cyborg commanded. "Cyborg out."

The communicator went blank as Cyborg and Raven disconnected.

Starfire closed her communicator before she moved towards Batman. "What will you do now?" She asked as the Dark Knight turned his back on her. It was clear he was leaving.

" The same thing as you." Batman said coldly as he disapeared back into the darkness. "Look for Slade."

Paling at the fierce intensity in those words, Beast Boy almost felt sorry for Slade when he heard that. _A__lmost_.

To be continued...


	14. The Things in Storybooks

**Author's Rantings: Okay, so where I'm going with this is kinda complicated. Before I get any comments on how adult Rose may seem for a six year old let me explain why I write her the way I do. Hurray, more geekness for all those that don't read the comic version of the new Teen Titans. So Rose aka Rose Wilson (Slade Wilson's daughter wink hint wink) has a pretty tragic fate in the comics. She starts out as a good guy and is a Titan for like a half a issue, before her daddy complex and orphanage trauma issues cause her to go a little nutty. She cuts out her own eye so she can be just like pa and becomes the new Ravager. As a skilled assassin she joins her daddy in his quest for all around bad guyness and becomes a thorn in Titan's side. And yeah. That's why she's dark and all around... well dark for being six in the way I write her. I just can't think of her any other way. So yeah. Anyways enjoy.**

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 14: The Things in Storybooks

-Jump City-

She had to get out of there.

But for those few last moments underneath the processing machine, Rose truly new what it felt like to be buried alive.

It didn't matter though, she'd take death over going back to those two.

At least this way she would no longer be the reason for Joey's destruction.

She was tired of always being the reason people got hurt and maybe she was too little to understand why these things kept happening but she was even more tired of being used.

Fortunately for her Slade and the Joker had more important things to worry about then her anyways.

Th toy factories conveyor belt had long since eroded into nothing but a empty tunnel. There were pieces of stone and steel half buried in the former pipe, but now it was just a empty bit of earth. Even so her lungs still ached with lack of oxygen and her stomach gripped with fear.

If she was discovered, there was no doubt in her head that she'd be killed.

That was the only truth she could expect from Slade. It felt like hours but she crawled, knee deep in dirt as the rain poured from the broken pipes ahead. But she didn't stop, she didn't even bother looking up into the cracks until she was at the end of the tunnel. Or else she might discover it was all a dream, and that she was still in the clutches of two maniacs.

And then just like everything had been a bad dream... she was free.

Stepping out into the evening, she felt like it was the first time she had seen the moon. Everything was so fresh, so alive.

So clean.

She stood there and closed her eyes letting the rain wash away the mud.

Everything was so clean.

But now matter how long she stood among the twisted buildings, she couldn't wash away her sins.

She would never be clean again.

The tears fell down her eyes and she didn't stop them.

She had lost her faith tonight.

The Easter Bunny, Santa Clause, and finding a mommy and daddy who loved her had been pretty lies she had seen through from the start. But there was one story, one hope she clinged to.

One thing she knew was real, because he appeared to her every night in her dreams. When she had been younger, she would tell herself every night in the orphanage that things would be alright. Because she had a prince who would save her if bad things ever happened to her.

A princely brother who would step out of her dreams and fight for her.

And he had.

Her prince had fought for her, killed for her, and betrayed everything he was for.

He had become tainted because of her.

Lifting her head up to the pouring rain, she continued to let the tears fall down her cheeks.

Wishes do come true sometimes. She had been saved by her beautiful brother just like she had always wanted.

But it was not what she wanted anymore.

It was like a different story from her storybooks. Instead it was the tragic tale like the ones when the prince kills a hideous demon, and while he saves his love and his land he ends up forever tainted himself and becomes the thing he originally fought against.

Now Joey was forever tainted.

And she too was tainted thanks to Slade. He had managed to stain her hands and it had been effortless.

So much for fairy tales.

Meanwhile...

-Abandoned Factory-

"I have to admit, I find this quaint." Slade couldn't help but muse as he watched the Joker lounge in a armchair he had fashioned out of what was once a giant jack in box. He had never known that a toy factor could serve such a useful facility for evil.

"You know me, Slade. All heart." Joker grinned. "And we can't let our little happy family grow and prosper in any old hole." Turning to the window he added, "Now if only our little bird would find his way home."

"He's a clever boy." Slade answered with a masked smile as he stared out at their surroundings. This toy factory was the only building still in Jump City's old industrial street that was still completely standing. It wouldn't be hard to find, once Robin realized what he was looking for. The old street had become nothing than a graveyard of steel, and no footsteps had graced the street in years. Time and poverty had eroded it to little more than a wasteland of hollow rotted buildings.

But they had left enough bread crumbs for their wayward son to follow.

Staring out the window Slade watched the veins of water that splayed across the window pane.

It wouldn't be much longer now. Especially since they were sending out a welcome wagon.

-The Slums-

Clutching her arms to her chest, Rose could see her breath as it rose up in hot clouds. She needed to find shelter soon. Making her way through the rubble, she was a little surprised to think that a beautiful city like Jump City had such a industrial wasteland just a few miles from town. With the Titans around, Jump City had always seemed so bright and safe from the threats of the real world.

But Rose guessed every city had its ugly side.

A shadow fell over her bringing her out of sweet melancholy. Darting her gaze up she was immediately filled with fear. This was a place no human should tread if they had any care for themselves.

Although she realized quickly that the thing in front of her barely qualified as human.

Where there had been no one only a moment ago, were now five of the most disgusting looking men she had ever seen. The closest one took a step towards her.

"Are you lost kitten?" The man asked towering over her. He was filthy, ragged and barely alive. But his breath was hot and putrid underneath those rotting teeth and his eyes were glittering with the dangerous kind of desire that Rose knew couldn't be trusted.

The others around him all shared the same expression staring at her like a pack of animals.

She didn't answer the closest man instead backing away a few inches. Glancing around her she tried to find a safe route for escape.

Whatever these men wanted, she could guess was something she didn't.

"What's your rush, sweetie?" He asked closing the distance between her. "A pretty thing like you shouldn't be in this part of town." The man said with a sick, satisfied smile. "You never know what kind of people you run into here in the slums."

The men behind him only laughed.

It was clear at this point that these were more bad men.

Suddenly she wished that she had stayed with Mr. Slade and the Joker.

At least they would have killed her with some tact.

Reaching out his greasy hand the man closest to her moved towards her, and she knew that if she let herself be caught she really would be just another missing child case just like Mr. Slade had said.

She let out a muffled scream and bolted away, running as fast as she could.

But they were on her in a matter of instants, just like a pack of wild dogs.

It was a game to them. She could hear them laughing and saying obscene things she was too young to understand. Then they closed in on her. And she was grabbed roughly from behind and vaulted up into the air before swiftly being thrown back to the ground as if she were nothing more than a sack of dirt.

The earth stung at her back as she connected with it, as the air was knocked out her.

Rough hands held her down, and dirty faces peered at her like a dog eying meat.

Clenching her eyes shut Rose could only think of how much she hated those stupid storybooks.

No prince was going to come and save her this time.

"AAARGH!"

A sickening thud cracked in her ears, followed by shrieks of pain as a new voice cried out.

It was followed by the song like sound of metal connecting with bone and more exclamations of pain.

Opening her eyes Rose's heart lept for a moment. Two of the men were lying in heaps beside her, their faces bloody and twisted with fear and pain.

"Big Brother-" She started whirling to see who the owner of the voice was. The voice that let out that strange battle cry was young and masculine.

And for a moment she almost believed in storybooks again.

But the boy wasn't Jericho.

Still, it was someone she recognized instantly.

He was infamous. A household name that every person knew.

But Robin didn't look too much like the pictures she had seen on the television.

Even torn, battered and completely insane Robin was still beautiful though.

Mr. Slade couldn't erase his grace or his passion.

"I'd normally say something like a catch phrase to sickos like you." He said coldly shaking the blood off of his bo staff. "But I'm not really myself right now."

She watched as the nearest old bum tried to attack him. Robin ducked underneath him before quickly flattening his palm and striking upward so fast and hard that Rose could hear the man's nose snap as loudly as if someone had taken a bite out of a carrot right next to her ear. As the man yowled in pain he then took that moment to roundhouse him to the floor, hitting the nose intentionally again as he kicked. Robin dealt one final blow to the bum's stomach and let him fall watching as the man wriggled on the ground in a pool of his own blood.

It was the simple start to the most violent thing she had ever seen.

He attacked each of them with all the fury of hell, making sure his blows caused as much damage as they could. It was like watching a serpent strike. Rose's chest gripped with fear at the monster that had come to her rescue, but she couldn't look away.

Bones snapped, flesh blistered and cracked as it was struck with steel and blood littered the rain covered earth.

Then in a matter of minutes it was over.

Robin didn't kill any of them.

But if probably would have been more humane if he had.

There was red everywhere and each man lay on the ground twitching barely conscious from blood loss and pain.

And in the pale moonlight and the shining rain, the boy in the middle of it all just stood there his face as calm and collected as if he were a statue. All Rose could do was stare.

It was painfully silent.

Robin looked at her, and she looked at Robin.

Blood was everywhere, on his hands, his face and his staff but his face was almost angelic. He only continued to stare at her, his wild blue eyes waiting for the moment when she would run away and scream out in terror over what he did.

Getting to her feet, Rose didn't do either. She stood there her arms half outstretched as if she had been waiting for him all along.

So, he took a step towards her.

And another.

She didn't recoil or look away.

For a minute he felt almost like himself again as he knelt down beside the girl he had saved in the same manner that he had always done before.

"You okay-" He started to ask before the two little arms reached out and gently touched his face.

The little girl began to gently wipe the blood off of his chin, never afraid of him or repulsed by the blood that speckled his cheeks.

It confused Robin all the more, but since he could no longer feel what fear was he didn't move away.

Instead he only watched the strange little girl work with his unholy blue eyes full of surprise.

When she was finished she enveloped her arms around him and pulled his head into her chest holding him into a hug. She held him tight, her white locks surrounding his face as he continued to stare at her.

But she just hugged him.

She wasn't asking for comfort like a normal little girl would. In fact, it was quite the opposite actually. She held him tightly, her eyes brimming with tears that he just couldn't understand as she hugged him with all her might.

As if she felt sorry for him.

He didn't know how to deal with this. And the small voice inside his heart started talking gibberish again, making him even more uncomfortable.

"How cute, you two are already getting acquainted." Slade's voice chuckled from behind them.

Raising his head up, Robin's eyes narrowed as Slade's figure appeared on the top of a crumbling rooftop.

"I don't think you two have been properly introduced." Slade grinned. "Robin meet Rose. We sent her outside to make sure you found your way. I'm sure Joey must have told you all about her."

Paling at that Rose's felt like she been kicked in the stomach. They had known all along that she had escaped.

Slade had known all along what she was planning and had used her all over again.

But her fury would have to wait.

Robin looked at her, his eyes hardening a little at the realization of who she was and Rose felt her chest tighten in fear.

He understood now. She was the reason he was just like the madman he fought against.

But he didn't say or do anything to her, he merely gently removed her hands from his neck and stood up.

Getting to his feet, Robin walked a few steps away from Rose. "She did come up briefly in our conversation." He said to Slade his lips turning into a very unRobin like smile. "But the last time I saw Joey he was falling off the edge of a window."

If Slade seemed surprised at that, he was a master at not showing it. "Well good to see you're taking things so well, Robin." He smiled. "It'd be a shame if you overreacted."

Pointing his staff at the masked man Robin's eyes narrowed. "Why don't you come down here so I can show you how well I'm taking it."

"I already had a front row seat." Slade answered. "You play pretty dirty when you're angry."

"If you haven't noticed, Slade I _am _a little crazy." Robin said plainly. "So can we skip the usual banter and just move on to the part that involves breaking your face?"

"And then what will you do?" Slade asked. "Beat me to a pulp and convince me to return you to your former state?"

"More or less." Robin replied with a smile.

"Do you really think you can just go back to that life, Robin?" The masked assassin said as he lept to the ground. " I don't think it will be so easy. Your secret identity, your sanity, I've managed to take both of them from you." He watched with pleasure as Robin's muscles tensed and flexed as he prepared to strike.

"You have to admit it's not all bad is it? To be something greater than a human." Slade breathed as he stared in awe at his creation. "To truly know no limits, or boundaries. For the first time in your life Robin, you're free."

Robin's eyes narrowed even more as that was said but Slade saw the change in his body language. "No offense, but I don't think your the person I should be listening to about what's best for me." He said calmly.

"Do you know what's best for you?" Slade asked.

Clutching his staff, Robin snarled. "Before all this, I was happy." It was the one truth he could still clung onto. While he could no longer remember what it felt like to love, or be sad, he remembered that. With the Titans, he had been happy.

"Happiness never lasts, Robin." Slade said calmly. "Sooner or later, someone will always come along and take the things you love from you. Didn't Tony Zucco prove that?" His one eye glittering in the moonlight Slade breathed. "You'll never be happy until you're strong enough to take your dreams with your own hands. Until then, you'll be weak. Weak people aren't missed in this world, and they're just as easily replaced."

"I'm not weak." Robin said darkly.

"No." Slade agreed. "You're not. The way you are now you're far from weak. Because now you don't have anything to lose. That's quite a advantage. Do you really want to give all that up so soon?" Slade asked. "If I returned you to the way you were, could you honestly tell me that you could stop me from repeating this again? Or the time after that?" That was getting to Robin, he could tell. And he knew the dear boy so well. "No. All you could do is wait for the next madman in tights to threaten your lives and destroy the things you care about. That's why heroes fall, Robin."

He could tell Robin was no longer positioned to attack. Instead it looked like he was thinking hard on what Slade was saying.

Without his emotions, Robin couldn't let his temper and his anger blind him to pretty things like justice.

And for the first time in his life, he found himself agreeing with him. "I have to be strong enough to take my dreams with my own hands..." He repeated his eyes burning with confusion.

Then suddenly it all just seemed to make sense. He had been going about things the wrong way.

"Here I am, Robin." Slade smiled breaking the boy from his intense thought. "You can finish what you came here for."

There was more silence.

"Or, you can listen to my alternative."

Silence.

Then Robin's hand pushed a small button and his bo staff shortened and shrank to a small harmless rod. Taking a deep breath he gave Slade a hard look.

"So what's your alternative?"

Slade's smile only widened. "Now_ that's_ my boy."

To be continued...


	15. Glass Shards

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 15: Glass Shards

It was a terrible and yet oddly beautiful thing to watch the death of a hero.

But she watched as the mighty Robin... the leader of the Teen Titans and the former partner of the greatest detective alive was suffocated, raped and then finally murdered. Everything he stood for and had loved was torn up into little bits and scattered into the air.

It was too quiet a death for someone like Robin.

The poor hero had been too weak to fight against Slade's logic, and the new creature saw that.

Because the new creature that rose up from Robin's dead body wasn't about to give him the satisfaction of a hero's death.

So instead, Robin's death had been small and insignificant.

Only witnessed to the world by one little girl and one madman.

"... I finally understand now." Robin whispered. His eyes narrowing he looked up into the sky his voice filled with frustration. "What I've been doing all this time was pointless."

"No time like the present for making up lost time." Was all Slade replied.

Robin's lips twisted into a thin, dark smile. "And I have a lot of catching up to do."

Raising her head up Rose felt like a lifetime had passed by the time they were finished talking. Most of it was stuff she didn't want to reminisce on. But before Rose even realized it Slade and the boy were walking away from her. They had almost disappeared into the mist when she heard a scream.

At first she didn't comprehend it had been her screaming until she found her own hands twisted firmly around Robin's cape.

He stopped and waited his insane eyes staring down at her in surprise as she stopped him from leaving.

Slade hadn't just killed a hero, she soon realized.

With Robin she had died a little too.

"Take me with you." She panted burying her head in Robin's torn cape.

His eyes widening, Robin had to admit that had been the last thing he expected her to say.

Letting out a laugh, Slade couldn't hide his complete amusement. How strangely like the little thing.

Raising his glance up to the masked man Robin could only guess her behavior made sense to him because he was at a loss for words.

"Didn't you hear me before?" Robin asked calmly as the rain continued to pour down on them. "Your brother is probably a blood splotch on the rocks because of me. I'm his murderer. What makes you think I won't do the same to you?"

The little girl only clung onto his cape tighter. "You can kill me anytime you want to, Robin. That way we'd be even. I no longer have anyone to return home to. Take me with you." She repeated.

Kneeling down, Robin grabbed the girl by her shoulders and looked into her eyes.

The things he'd do to her if he found her lying or somehow teasing him.

Instead her eyes managed to stop his anger short.

They were so hollow, so full of pain and confusion.

He knew what it felt like to have eyes that looked like that.

If the cold rain hadn't drained the last warm feelings out of his soul, Robin might have almost pitied her.

Letting her go quickly Robin took a step backwards as if he had been struck.

"Then you understand what we're going to do?" Slade asked in Robin's place. "This isn't a game, Rose."

"You play with people's lives like they're games, Slade. But I don't have a reason to care anymore." Rose replied not looking at him. "The weak can't afford things like dreams, remember?"

"So you _do _understand." Slade's lips curling into a smile he grinned. "Why Rose, I'm _proud _."

Taking Robin's hand Rose didn't answer or look at Slade. "Take me with you." She asked one last time. "Please."

Robin didn't reject her as she did.

Instead he looked at Slade and when the villain gave a nod the boy merely started walking with Rose in tow.

It had been a funny kind of week.

But now they were all one big happy family.

A family of madman.

- Later-

"Oh, so where's our little junior now?" Joker asked as Slade greeted him at the entrance.

"He wants to get cleaned up before he comes down." Slade answered in the same fatherly tone he often used. "He's had rough day after all."

Grinning ear to ear Joker nodded. "And the fun's just getting starting from here on out."

- Upstairs-

The hot water that poured down on Robin did little to comfort the cold tightness in his chest. Letting the spray beat down on his bowed head he turned the crank harder, until the water that did jet down on him was so hot he could barely stand it. His skin was getting red and he felt slightly nauseas as the heat rose. But he just stood there, some small part of him clinging to the hope that just maybe he'd be able to melt the frozen wasteland that was now his heart.

It was no use. Things were never that simple.

The faculties weren't spectacular but they would do. A old abandoned toy factory at least had worker dorms and a locker room.

He doubted he'd be disturbed any further tonight by Slade anyways, so he could make use of the living faculties without much worry. And smiling darkly to himself he had always assumed a psycho like the Joker just bathed with a garden hose.

A small sneeze caught his attention and he pulled his mind away from his twisted thoughts. She was waiting for him just outside the door.

Like a stray cat, she hadn't left his side since he had found her.

Leaning his head up against the cold tile Robin wasn't sure how he was going to deal with that. On one hand, her presence made him feel like wasn't completely nuts.

On the other, he didn't like feeling human now that he really wasn't.

She made his head and his heart hurt in that place again.

Sighing he didn't know what was worse, being crazy or realizing he was crazy.

So he tried to ignore her for now and just focus on letting the water fall down onto his gracefully toned shoulders.

He'd let the shower shed the tears he couldn't.

Stepping out of the shower several minutes later, Robin finished toweling off his dark hair and opened the locker room door. Sure enough a little white haired elf was crouched in the doorway waiting for him. Moving past her, he started to make a reach for his uniform when he stopped.

Something in him just couldn't force himself to put that thing back on.

It stood for everything he no longer was.

"Mr. Slade put some clothes on your bed." She said casually.

"Rose." He instructed. "Throw this away." Handing her the uniform he walked down the hall and towards the men's dorm. Sure enough a black sparring outfit had been prepared for him along with a mask.

Throwing the mask to the side, Robin quickly got dressed. There was no need to hide anything anymore.

After he was dressed, he leaned over and fell onto the bed.

It felt so good to close his eyes.

Suddenly the fatigue and stress of the last two days started catching up with him. He had been clinging so hard to his goal, he had barely realized how worn out his body really was.

Now he felt like he could barely move.

He was almost falling asleep when he felt two small hands touch his back. Springing up he grabbed his attacker and vaulted it and himself onto the floor, one hand pressed against its throat and the other raised to strike.

Letting out a muffled choke, Rose bit back tears as Robin's hand cut off her breath.

"Che." Robin snorted before releasing her. "Didn't people teach you how to knock?'

Clutching her neck Rose let out a weak laugh. "I told you... you can kill me whenever you want to."

"Yeah. I remember." He said quietly his insane blue eyes burning into hers. "But letting me kill you won't get you any closer to meeting your brother."

Ignoring him Rose got to her feet. "Do you know what happens to Kay in the story of the Snow Queen?" She asked as she climbed up on his bed and snuggled in next to him.

"No. I didn't grow up in a house with very many fairy tales." Robin said truthfully. "We were more into detective novels."

"In the orphanage, they tell us stories all the time." Rose smiled. "To give us hope, I guess. That the impossible will happen. And that dreams do come true. I hate storybooks."

"It's never a bad thing to hope for something." Robin replied.

"Yes it is." Rose whispered. "Dreams only come true if you're strong enough to take them. Weak people deserve their misery... you have to look out for yourself in this world. No one is going to save you."

"I understand that now." Robin nodded.

"Is it really so bad to weak?" Rose asked quietly. "Is it that bad a crime to be weak?"

"I don't know." Robin said honestly before changing the subject. "But tell me. What happens to Kay?" He asked not stopping her as she lifted his arm up so she could crawl underneath it and lay down beside him. Misery loved company.

For now, he'd allow her to be crazy with him.

"Kay is the nicest boy in his village but one day the Mirror of Hell that shows the world only ugliness breaks and two glass shards fall from heaven and hit Kay. From that day his head and heart become nothing but lumps of ice. He becomes a monster." Rose explained, reaching forward and wrapping Robin once more in a hug. "You asked me why I want to stay with you. You remind me of that story, Robin."

"I'm not fond of being pitied, Rose." Robin said quietly, his voice dangerously low.

"Only a fool would pity someone like you." She answered with a smile that was half hidden under soft white bangs. His eyes narrowing, Robin had to admit this was the most adult six year old he had ever encountered.

Hugging him tightly she whispered. "Don't you see? Mr. Slade has it all wrong. You're not his monster, you're mine. I stayed with you because I want to see the future you'll create. Good or evil, yours is a name that will be remembered. Because even without a soul, you'll change the world. You are my Kay."

Closing his eyes Robin mused on the images she had given him. "I think I can live with that."

To be continued...


	16. Shades of Black and White

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 16: Shades of Black and White

-Jump City-

(The Abandoned Factory)

Walking downstairs everything Robin was expecting for his welcome party was more or less what he got. Slade and Joker were waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs like two expectant fathers glad to see him.

Eyes narrowing slightly Robin was coming to realize more and more how he hated that.

Gawking Harley Quinn peeked over the Joker's shoulder so she could get a eyeful in secret. It was amazing what a little mind altering pill and a make over could do for someone's appearance. Dressed in all black made Robin look all the more taller, fuller, and sinister. Who knew that under that snotty little runt was such a looker. Without the hair mouse, Robin's black locks fell gently in his eyes and framed his face in a eerily sweet manner making him look all the more like the dark angel he had become. Those ungodly blue eyes of his didn't help either.

She was a one man loon and everyone knew it, but if she ever wanted a boy toy she suddenly knew who she'd be bat signaling.

"I hardly recognized you without the traffic light tights, squirt." Joker grinned. "You must feel naked without the spandex."

"Funny coming from you, Joker." Robin replied with a smile. "You costumed drag queens and your pets always could crack me up back in Gotham."

"Sticks and stones, Robbie." Harley Quinn answered in Joker's place waggling a finger. "That's calling the kettle black. You can't really call dressing up like a Christmas tree good fashion sense."

Slapping Robin on the shoulder Joker pushed him forward."Ah I missed our banter, kid. With Bat's its all business these days, no clever quips or monologues like we used to. Things have changed so much since you left." Squeezing Robin's shoulder he grinned. "It's so nice to have everyone back together again."

"If we're about to have a tender moment, mind if I puke first?" Robin asked casually pushing Joker's hand away.

"Let's save the cuddling for later." Slade murmured stepping forward. "We have more important things to talk about."

Turning on a remote several computer screens suddenly flickered on.

And the contents on each of them would have made Robin's blood run cold considering he still had a heart to freeze.

Instead he felt a swirl of awe and excitement coarse through his body in the place of disgust and fear.

"So the canisters really _were_ a decoy." He breathed staring up at the incredible amounts of nano technology that was being processed before him.

Slade was a genius, he'd give the bastard that.

He had managed to combine his nano technology that he come up with when the Titans had been probed, with CP9 and the new integrated microchip Star Labs had come up with to help brain tumor patients fight cancer.

This thing was a living, breathing, _computerized_ disease.

Saying it would be devastating was like calling the holocaust a small disagreement.

"You're not planning on causing a city wide panic. You're going to wipe these cities off the earth." Robin stated having to admit he was impressed. "And you're really not going to ask for money? Anything you wanted could be yours with something like this."

"Exactly." Slade mused. "There's no need to barter with peasants when you stand to become a god. Power. Wealth. Whatever we want, we'll simply take once the cities are leveled to dust." Placing a hand on Robin's shoulder Slade asked. "What is it that you want Robin? With this you'll finally be strong enough to take your dreams."

"My dreams are all right here." Robin said with a soft smile as he stared up at the screen. All his hopes now rested in this beautiful little disease.

- Titan's Tower-

Jericho heard muffled voices twisting and calling to him in words he couldn't understand before a familiar friend found its way back in his life.

Pain and lots of it.

His head was throbbing, every part of his body still hurt and there was a feverish ache spreading all over his body. It took him a few seconds to remember what had happened, and if he hadn't been able to feel every pain cell he owned he might have jumped to the conclusion he was dead. But he bet hell didn't hurt this much. Letting his eyelids slowly flutter open, it was hard to focus on anything in the room except for the pounding pain in his head. Weakly sitting up he realized he was back in the small guest room he had been occupying for the last two days since he had arrived at Titan's Tower. And crouched on the floor beside him was a very angry looking Raven.

He could tell instantly from her expression she knew everything.

_I'm so sorry._

_I'm so sorry._

_I'm so sorry._

He didn't speak those words, his voice just like his heart seemed broken. Instead Jericho clenched his eyes shut as the tears he had been suppressing for so long just poured out. He lowered his head and groveled, wishing he had been allowed to die to hide his shame.

He couldn't look at Raven now.

**SMACK!**

Pulling back her arm, Raven had struck him light enough to not hurt him even in his weakened state, but strong enough to get her point across. "I forgive you." She said in her normal monotone as she felt the sorrow radiating from him. Distantly she picked up a small tray of medical supplies and got to her feet, not wanting to discuss it further.

In the corner Beast Boy was flinching like he had been hit himself. He could already see Jericho's pasty cheek was turning bright red from that love pat. "Jeez, Raven! What would you have done to him if you hadn't forgiven him?"

"He's a Titan." Raven shrugged walking out of the room. "He'd get over it eventually. I'd watch your step around Starfire though, she's not as sweet as I am."

Turning white both boys suddenly realized that might be true this time.

And that was horrifying.

Watching her go, Jericho could only entertain that moment of normality for a few seconds before the reality of everything came crashing down on him. Slade still had Rose. And worse off... what he had done to Robin was nothing less than unforgivable.

"You may not want to step outside your room until your healthy enough to at least sprint." Beast Boy tried to joke as he closed the door so they could talk. "Star's pretty fast."

"How can you forgive me just like that?" Jericho asked the green changeling beside him as he was on the verge of shouting. This time he just couldn't keep silent. His voice was cracked and the words felt raw and difficult in his mouth, but he spoke anyways. "If I'm alive that means Raven healed me. If she healed me, then she saw what I did. You all must know by now what I did to your friend." He whispered his ghost like voice soft with remorse.

"Yeah we're not too thrilled with you on that level." Beast Boy said honestly. "But what else could you have done? Abandoning your friends is a pretty crummy thing to do, but you'd be even worse if you abandoned your little sister."

"But I destroyed Robin!" Jericho snarled his voice almost sounding as high as a normal boy's as he shouted. "Did you see what I turned him into? How can you all just sit here and treat me so kindly after all that!"

"Look," Beast Boy said quietly trying to keep his voice steady. "We believe in Robin."

Jericho's green eyes widened as if he had been slapped again.

"It might look pretty hopeless right now with Robin being a little nutty, but he's _Robin_. You can't destroy someone like him. No matter what happens, sooner or later, we'll find a way to beat this." Beast Boy answered.

"Why?" Jericho asked the tears starting to fall again. "Why do you have so much faith in him?"

"Because he's always had faith in me." Beast Boy said with a smile. "In all of us. Robin's a lot of things, and most of them aren't necessarily good things. He's arrogant, and pushy and he can be a real jerk sometimes, but I've never doubted that he believes in me." Getting a sad distant tone in his voice Beast Boy murmured. "He's the kind of guy that makes you think your important even if you really aren't. I'm the skinny no talent comic relief of the group and I can live with that. Compared to everyone else here... I know I'm the weakest link. That's never bothered me. I'm also a green mutated freak that's never going to have a shot at being normal. But Robin's always treated me like I could change the world if I wanted to. Like the Titans would be nothing without me." Glancing out at the hallway Beast Boy added. "That's how he's always treated each of us."

Smiling he looked at Jericho. "How can we _not_ want to not give up on someone like that?"

-Abandoned Factory-

"It's a pretty good plan." Robin said as Slade finished. "But what about Batman? And the Titans?" He asked looking up at Slade and then to the Joker. "It's not really your style to pull something like this off without giving them something to go on. Isn't that part of the game to you?"

"Let's stay on point, short pants." Joker answered. "Congratulations. You used your little detective mojo to figure out Jericho was in our little game. But I'm not sure we're ready to fill you in on those details just yet. I'm crazy, kiddo. Not stupid."

Moving to the next table Robin was only half listening to him. He had found a rusty gear on the far end and seemed far more entertained with tinkering with it.

"Why Joker." Robin said with mock hurt. "Don't you trust me?"

"Trust is such a strong word, Robbie Pooh. I just don't think you have the stomach for this thing." Joker grinned.

"How so?" Robin asked casually.

"That was a big old whopper you told at the front gate." Joker explained. "Jericho's punch card isn't quite full just yet." His voice getting darker he added. "You let him live didn't you?"

Eyes widening the little girl who had been listening to them at the edge of the stairs couldn't help let a muffled choke escape her lips. "But you said-"

"I said he_ might_ be a blood splotch, I didn't say he _was_." Robin stated matter of factly to Rose as he crossed his arms, the rusty gear still clutched in one fist as he listened to the Joker. "What if I did? I needed a decoy to escape Titan's Tower. Plummeting Joey off the edge of the roof seemed like a good idea at the time."

"Come on now, Robbie. After _everything_ he did, you just couldn't pop his balloon. With a egg head as big as yours I'm sure you could have figured out another way out." Joker pointed out. Slowly focusing on every word he breathed, "But you just _couldn't_ do it. Just like your daddy kins. Even nuts you're still such a boy scout."

Robin's hand moved so fast even Slade could barely follow it. But using the gear he had been playing with like a throwing star it was embedded deep inside Joker's shoulder before he could blink.

Letting out a shrill cry of pain, Joker clutched his shoulder before the outburst was followed by insane laughter.

"HAAAHAAAAHAAA! Now that's more like it!" He beamed staring at the boy as he clung onto his blood soaked arm.

Walking towards him Robin smacked the Joker's hand away from the gash and yanked the rusty metal out of his torn flesh with a sick pop. "I have a soft spot for shoulder wounds." The boy said sweetly as he stared down at the blood and torn ligaments of flesh on the gear. "They _hurt _don't they?"

He asked leaning closer to Joker, "Still think I'm a boy scout?"

"HAAHAHAHAHHAHAAHA!" Joker cackled again before he turned to Slade. "When you and I set out to make a little monster, we sure take the cake!"

Throwing the bloody gear to the ground Robin moved away from the clown and walked towards the little girl shaking in the corner.

"Are you regreting your request now?" He asked calmly.

She looked at him with angry hurt eyes but didn't answer him just yet.

Bending down Robin gently cuffed Rose's cheek. "You said you wanted to see the world I'll create for you, Rose. You sure you still want that? Not all monsters end up being loved by their creators in the end." His unholy blue eyes almost seemed to soften with kindness as he added. "And I'm not the one you really want, am I? You still want Joey... despite how much your trying to convince yourself otherwise." Turning out to the cackling maniac, his insane clown girl, and the masked madman he breathed. "You don't belong here with the rest of us. You're not like this yet."

To his surprise the little girl laughed.

"Are you pretending to still have a soul, Robin?" Rose asked calmly although there was a amused smile on her face. "Or are you trying to pretend I have one?" Hugging his neck she buried her face in his strong shoulder. "You know the answer to your question."

"It's too late for regrets now. I can't go back now."

She hid her eyes in his shirt as she whispered, "Joey's alive... though?"

Smiling softly Robin just stroked her hair. "Yes."

He could feel her body shake with relief. "It's better this way, isn't it Robin?" She asked. "If I keep letting him believe in the lie? If he can still live in that fairytale?" She whispered. "If my brother saw me now... if he saw how ugly the world looks to me..."

"I thought you hated fairytales." Robin said softly.

"Joey's weak, isn't he?" Rose choked. "But no matter what Mr. Slade says... I don't care. It's okay for Joey to be weak. If being strong means being like this... I want him to be weak forever."

"He _is_ weak." The black haired boy stated. "But what makes you think he still won't try to come for you?"

"He'll come, just like they'll come for you." Rose answered her body shaking. "And then I'll get to see if Mr. Slade is right. If the weak really do deserve to die, he and the Titans will die. But if Mr. Slade is wrong-"

To her suprise Robin let go of her and started laughing.

It was a soft, strange laugh so innocent and kind sounding that it made Rose all the more afraid as she looked at Robin. He raised his head, one hand still clutched on his stomach as he finished laughing. Those frozen blue eyes of his were so cold they burned.

"Little girls really are fickle." He chuckled before his voice got dangerous. Staring down at her he breathed. "What you're really saying is you don't know what you want or who's team you're on. That's okay though. No one here is asking you to pick." Those eyes were full of murderous intent freezing her to the ground as she stared up at them. Gently though he reached down and touched her hair. "But if that's all you wanted me to show you in the first place. All you had to do was _ask_."

To be continued...


	17. Playing Doctor

**Author's Rantings: As for this chapter, I needed a hostage. So I thought about it... ****Alfred. Commissioner Gordon. Barbara. Nah. I wanted someone that would be insignificant to the bad guys and give Bruce Wayne a chance at keeping his identity. Most importantly I needed someone who was close to Bruce but not necessarily important to Dick. Psychopaths have a tendency to be possessive after all. So I'm bringing Dr. Leslie Thompkins into the batch. Love her, hate her, don't know who she is? Well here's the Cliff Notes version: Leslie Thompson is a close friend of Alfred Pennyworth and has been Bruce Wayne's doctor since he was born. She's also the closest thing he had to a mother figure growing up. The good doctor lives in Crime Alley, which is the street that Bruce's parents got murdered on and despite the slum it's become she still operates her clinic there and has done everything from working on welfare patients to trying to do reconstructive surgery on Two Face. Also she's one of the handful of people that knows about Bruce's little escapades as Batman. While a very minor character in the series, I decided to make her a minor one in my story too. Eh, she's still better than Batgirl. Enjoy, there's not much to this chapter except Batman/Robin conversation. But we're getting closer to the fun stuff.**

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 17: Playing Doctor

-Gotham City-

(Park Grove)

Close your eyes.

Imagine the most beautiful place you can think of.

Now think of the exact opposite.

That would be the best way to describe Park Grove.

Better known these days as Crime Alley.

What was once the most prosperous business street in Gotham City decades ago was now the city's boulevard of broken dreams.

Streets littered with graffiti, buildings on the verge of collapsing to erosion and decay. The masses of homeless both young and old shuffled through the streets with half dead eyes and crushed spirits.  
And yet out of all the places in Gotham to call home, this was where _she_ lived.

"I've been finding myself in slums a lot this week." A boy mused to himself as he stared out the window.

"Son?"

Pulling his thumb out of the screen Dick Grayson turned his attention back to the large woman sitting behind a desk.

"Did you hear me, honey?" The older woman asked as she absentmindedly jotted something down on her notepad. It was obvious she had more important things to worry about then him.

"Sorry." The boy replied giving her a charming smile and bringing his hand up behind his head apologetically. "I was admiring the view."

"Now that's a joke if I've heard one. Not much of a view here in Crime Alley." Getting a look at the boy through the corner of her eyes, he seemed a little too well off to be here in this part of the city. He had clean clothes, a clean face, and was not racked on drugs or on the brink of starvation like everyone else that passed through these doors.

But the woman kept that to herself and kindly repeated. "I _said_ Dr. Thompkins is in with a patient right now, but you're welcome to wait." Cocking a eyebrow asked. "You said you _were_ a patient, right?"

"Aw come on, Maggie. I'm hurt." Dick exclaimed crossing his arms. "You don't recognize me?"

The woman behind the desk just stared at him.

Brushing it off he flashed her a grin before vaulting off the ground and performing a handspring. "Don't make me have to try to back flip down the stairs again. Bruce won't be here to break my fall this time." The boy hinted with a laugh. "Man! The last time I did that you chased me around the block with that broom of yours for almost an hour."

That did it.

"D... Dick!" The woman exclaimed as the light bulb suddenly flashed on in her head.

Bowing in the same way he did back in his circus days the boy grinned, "Ding! That's me."

"My god, it _is _you." Looking him over she blanched at the very sight of him. "When did you get back in town?"

"Today actually. I'm not staying long." Dick said with a smile.

"Oh honey, I'm sorry. I didn't expect to see you here... and so big!" The woman said kindly. "Bruce was saying you're doing great at that new school in Jump City." Letting out a sigh she shook her head and commented. "He misses you, you know. Such a strange young man, that one. Sometimes I think he's nothing more than a no good play boy, if you read the Gotham Times it'd knock your socks off sometimes the stuff they print about him-"

Robin pretended to listen to her as he checked the window for a second time.

"But then other times he seems so _different, _like he's a whole other person." The big woman finished.

"Nobody can stay the same forever." Dick answered cryptically.

"That's very mature of you to think so. But still I know Leslie worries about him. He's not as happy go lucky now that you're gone." Maggie sighed.

Bringing a balled fist to his mouth, Robin pretended to cough. But she could tell from his strange smile he was chuckling.

"Did I say something?" She asked blinking.

"No." Dick replied with a grin fanning it off. "It was just a funny mental image. Happy go lucky." He repeated before chuckling again.

He was amused, but she didn't seem to get the joke.

And the Dick Grayson she knew didn't laugh as much as most boy's should. But then she had never blamed him for that, most boys hadn't lost as much as he had. But there were no signs of the gentle, serious young man she had grown accostumed to in the eyes of the Dick Grayson talking to her. Seeing him like this, not only startled her but she could feel that itch people get right before something bad happens was starting to creep up her spine. Something just wasn't right.

This time she noticed he was checking the window for a third time and strangely found it a little unnerving.

"Honey, I know it's been a while. But you look different." She said honestly.

"You know I feel different, Maggie." The boy answered sweetly.

But that smile of his just didn't seem to fit the conversation.

Then she saw it.

Down below her three cars were pulling up to the building each with a shiny automatic barrel sticking out of the passenger window and several dangerous looking men inside.

Unmarked cars.

Unmarked guns.

Unmarked faces covered in ski masks.

She hadn't lived in Crime Alley for twenty years for nothing. This was a set up.

"Dick... what's going on?" The woman asked her voice raw with fear.

"How should I know?" Came the young man's reply as he looked out the window with her. "Your guess is as good as mine. This stuff is pretty normal in Crime Alley."

There was that smile again, so gentle it was almost _teasing_ her.

Now she was terrified.

"Ho.. how _is_ Bruce?" The woman asked trying to still be friendly until she could clear her head. "He hasn't been in to see us in months."

"Ah Bruce is Bruce." Dick shrugged nonchalantly. "You know him."

"Uh huh." The woman replied shakily.

"How much longer is Leslie going to be again?" Dick asked taking a step towards her.

Making a reach for the phone, the white haired woman tried to hide her stammer as she started to dial, "Well here honey, let me see if she's ready to see you yet-"

Firmly placing a hand on hers, Dick forced the receiver back down. He knew what number she had really been trying to call. Letting out a choke the woman honestly hadn't thought the boy was so strong, no matter how she struggled she couldn't lift her hand out from under his. Looking up at him she could see the smile was gone, and there was something deadly in his eyes. "If it's all the same to you, I think I'll check for myself Maggie." He said calmly.

"I really don't have the time to wait."

-Wayne Enterprises-

Click.

Click.

Click.

Click.

Click.

Rubbing his bleary eyes Bruce Wayne could hardly focus on his computer screen.

He hadn't slept in days.

Taking a sip of cold coffee in some small attempt to curb his fatigue, Batman got back to work.

He had to admit there was a reason Robin had gotten so obsessed with Slade. He was _twisted_.

And unlike the Joker, Deathstroke the Terminator was incredibly focused.

He scrolled down past the surveillance files, past the city map of the targeted areas. Even the case files of what had been stolen at Star Labs had shown no real answers in their pages.

The How and the Why he knew.

Now he only need to find the Where.

His eyes narrowing into slits as he worked, Batman couldn't force back the rage. When he found Slade and the Joker...

**RING!**

Flinching in surprise Bruce had almost forgotten that there was a outside world past his office. The young billionaire tried to compose himself for a moment before he grabbed the receiver.

"Hello?" He asked groggily burying his eyes in his hand again as he tried to play up his mask as best he could.

"Mr. Wayne, there's a call for you on line one." His secretary replied.

"I asked you not to take any calls. I'm really busy with this proposal." The billionaire muttered a little annoyed.

"I know sir, but it's your son." Came her response.

That stopped him cold.

"What?" He asked again not quite sure he heard right.

"Your son is on the other line. He says it's important." She explained. "Should I tell him to call back lat-"

Bruce's fingers crunched down so hard on the transfer button the secretary didn't even get a response to that.

There was only silence on the other end, but faintly with the ears only a detective could have he could hear breathing on the other end.

"... Robin?" Batman asked.

"Hi Batman." The voice on the other end said casually.

He sounded the same just like he always did. And for a moment even the mighty Batman wanted to cling to the hope that Robin was exactly the way he had left him, safe and sound.

"Where are you?" Batman snarled his voice rigid with worry and anger.

"Sorry about not coming to see you myself, but I've been a little busy." Robin said ignoring him.

"WHERE ARE YOU?" Batman asked again.

"I heard you the first time." The boy almost seemed to smile over the phone.

"Dick-" The Dark Knight winced. He had been expecting it, he knew what had happened to the boy, but the reality of the situation was hard even for Batman.

"It's true then..." He breathed. "You really have-"

"Yeah. I bet I'd make a nice addition to Arkham right now. But I get by. Never mind that though Batman," Robin said calmly, "You should go to the window."

"Dick, you're not well. Whatever Slade and the Joker are doing to you-" Batman began before Robin cut him off.

He was being ignored again. "Come on Bruce, don't be stubborn." Robin instructed.

"Go to the window."

Eyes narrowing Batman was still trying to take it all in. Taking the phone receiver with him he moved to the window.

To his surprise there was something flat and box shaped wedged on the outside of the window.

Batman's stony face didn't show it but he was shocked. He had been there all night and had never noticed so much as a bird fly by. There was no way Robin could have snuck by him and at this height no less. To scale Wayne Enterprises was like climbing a box shaped mountain made of steel.

And yet... this little picture frame was suggesting that very thing.

"By the way, Bruce you should get some sleep. You look terrible." Robin stated.

Batman opened the window trying to ignore that comment. The wind at this height pulled at Bruce like a invisible enemy, whipping through his black hair and stinging at his cheeks as he pulled the small picture frame off from the ledge.

He couldn't see the picture at first, since it was bundled up with a scrap of paper. Undoing the gingerly wrapped frame Batman could make out that the paper was a map.

But the photo itself made Batman's blood freeze. "No..."

"Robin... ... where did you get this?" He choked shaking his head in disbelief as he stared at the photo.

The frame was cracked, and there was red splotched in the corner washing out half of one of the figure's bodies. But even with part of it destroyed Batman knew every inch of this photo. The Dark Knight's shoulders shook with anger as he looked at the picture of Dr. Leslie holding a tiny Bruce Wayne as he mourned his parents death.

There was only one copy of that photo in existence and it was something she never would have given up so easily.

"Where did you get this?" Batman asked again.

The boy on the other end waited a moment before answering.

"From her cold, clammy hands." Robin replied darkly.

Silence.

"Batman..." Robin muttered his voice no longer sweet and casual. Instead it was cold and dead serious. "You're in my way."

It was a simple enough reason. He hoped Batman could understand that. But he didn't get a answer. Instead all he could hear was Bruce's teeth clench as that ever present silence blocked out whatever was really going on in the great detective's head.

"Robin... I'll find the people that did this to you." The Dark Knight seethed. "And when I find them-"

"No. You don't get the chance to be a hero this time." Robin stated. "Not when I know every step you'll take. In three days, just be at that spot on the map. If you're not, then Leslie and a lot of other people might suffer."

It was like a bad dream.

Batman wasn't just going to find Slade. He was going to rip him apart piece by piece.

"Batman." The voice of his former ward whispered on the other end of the line. "Please don't disappoint me."

Then the phone disconnected.

To be continued...


	18. Changing the World

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 18: Changing the World

-Jump City-

It was a lot harder to be a villain than Robin had originally realized. A lot of planning and effort went into your basic evil scheme. Preoccupied with that notion the former Boy Wonder finished bandaging a large gash on his index finger before he continued. The last thing he needed to do was bleed all over the computer he was trying to hack into.

Ah, how things change with time. A week ago he would push himself to the limit making sure he kept vigilant surveillance on all the usual crime zones. He'd wrack his brain so hard that he didn't sleep or eat as he covered every base, tracked every footstep to make sure he was ahead of the Titan's token villain of the week. For what? All that effort, and all the Titans did after they got that call to play hero was knock down the pieces that the villains worked so hard to place for them.

Saving the day was the easy part, it was taking over the world that was the trick.

"When there's trouble you know who to call..."

Humming the boy gingerly inserted a cable into the motherboard and plugged the other side into his laptop. Just as he thought, no alarm went off and no system hijacker popped up to pull the plug on his mission. "Slade's right." He said to himself as he started working. "You just can't trust people."

Keyboard clacking madly with excitement, Robin was typing at a unreal speed despite the large gash that was underneath his bandaged hand.

He was almost in.

Supercomputers had a tendency to focus more on memory hierarchy than security features anyways. The Teen Wonder's skill with a computer was rivaled only perhaps by Cyborg but this time it wasn't rocket science. Staring at the screen he realized he was lucky, the computer's I/O system was almost nothing but data streaming.

Just three minutes and twelve strands of code and he was done.

Three minutes was all it took to change the world.

Meanwhile...

-Titan's Tower-

4 AM was a lousy time to look for a madman.

"I'm coming apart at the strings here!" Beast Boy exclaimed as he leaned deeper and deeper into the large metal cabinet of case files.

Blue files, red files, files written in code, files written in police traffic, files written in... was that Japanese?

Letting out a cry of defeat he threw a stacked manila folder on the floor. "DUDE! I can't find anything on Slade. I can't find anything on anything! Robin's coded and cataloged all of these, he's the only one that ever read up on this stuff. ERG! I'd have better luck reading Tamaranian!"

"Then you better bust out a translator, and _fast._" Cyborg snapped back from his communicator. "Because I'm a little busy fixing the tower in case you haven't noticed!"

"Friends," Starfire called trying to sound as cheerful as she could manage as she carried a huge pile of plywood over to Cyborg. "Now is not the time for the spilling of the harsh words. We must focus all of our efforts on the task at hand."

"Starfire's right." Raven added as she scanned the city's surveillance system. "The enemy is out _there_. We don't have time to argue with each other." Turning to Jericho who was helping Beast Boy the best he could despite his injuries she asked. "Jericho you're sure you couldn't make out anything about the factory? Anything you remember might be important."

Looking up at her shame blazed in his eyes but Joey only shook his head. The ethereal boy hadn't opened his mouth since he and Beastboy had talked shortly after he had awoken.

It wasn't unusual for him. Jericho hardly ever spoke and when he did it was never more than a few words.

Actually he had probably spoken more this week than he had in all the years they had known him. Raven never asked him about it, since she had powers similar to him but she had always felt a great deal of mental trauma radiate from his small body whenever Joey spoke. So most of the time he played the role of the gentle mute letting his hands and his eyes speak for him, and none of the Titans ever questioned him about it.

Something bad had happened and that was all they knew.

Lately though he had almost come out of it. The Titans had almost got him using full sentences, they had even heard him laugh. But his deception and betrayal had caused a relapse in that, and Raven could feel that huge mental block again. This time Jericho's voice seemed completely broken.

"Please Joey... anything." She asked again trying to get something out of him. He was their only lead right now.

Staring at her, his green eyes only deepened with guilt for his own uselessness. All he could do was shake his head again. If Slade had made it that easy, he would have found a way back to Rose by now. Clenching his fists Jericho tried to bite back the bitterness in his mouth. Robin's beating felt like a mosquito bite compared to the burning in his chest. Waiting was the most painful experience of his life. The fear of not knowing what had become of your most important person and the helplessness and frustration that followed were enough to rip a person in two.

"It's not your fault." Raven said stoically turning back to the screen and started changing camera screens. She was no good at comforting people, and there was nothing any of them could say to help the situation. For now, Joey would just have to believe Rose was safe.

That was all they had to go on right now. Their belief that things would work out.

Racing forward Jericho suddenly caught her hand, stopping her from clicking the mouse to the next screen. Stepping in front of her the small boy raised his hand and pointed to the screen.

He recognized that place instantly.

Jericho had been gagged and blindfolded after he had agreed to help Slade with his plans, but when you were a person of as little words as him you learned to listen better. And he remembered that horrible place well enough for never having laid eyes on its outside. The silence had been deafening, no human footsteps had graced that place in decades. More importantly the smell of tar and rust from old gears and machines, along with the feeling of dirt and broken cement in the wind as he was dragged out of Slade's factory had stuck with him for hours after he had been released.

That place there on the screen; with its barren earth and shut down factories was the closest thing to a match he'd bet Jump City had to offer.

"But that's just the old industrial dump," Beast Boy snorted, "There's nothing there but junkyards and bulldozed factories-" Catching himself his eyes widened.

"Bingo."

-The Slums-

Walking back towards the slums Robin folded his hands behind his head and indulged in a long stretch. It had been a busy day first day as a super villain. He had been running nonstop on these little errands for almost sixteen hours straight. "Man, I could go for a slice of pizza..." He said casually enjoying the feeling of blood rushing back to his fingers as he worked out the kinks. Fingering his chin, it was just wishful thinking though.

He doubted the Pizza Parlor delivered to evil lairs.

It was almost eerie how normal all this seemed now. A few days ago he had missed the empty hole in his heart, and still clutched bitterly to the resentment of not being able to remember things that had once been so important to him.

But he wasn't going to remember and he had come to accept that.

Love, Sadness, Regret, Fear. Remembering those was like trying to remember the feeling of how to use x-ray vision or the sensation of flying. If his body didn't know how to do it, why should he miss it?

Home again, home again.

This place was definitely not Titan's Tower but he had gotten used to things. Typing in the password to the entrance then climbing up the stairs to his room Robin had to take a moment to realize things would only be this way for a little while longer. There was only a day left until his plan was unleashed onto the world.

Just one day.

His mind pleasantly lulling over that he opened the men's dorm room and stepped in. There was no sign of Rose among his belongings. That struck him as a little odd but he shrugged it off. He knew out of all the six year olds in the world, she out of any of them could take care of herself.

"There you are, Robin." A suave voice breathed as Slade appeared out of the shadows. Glancing at him through the corner of his eye, Robin realized there were only two people alive that could still sneak up on him like that. "I was wondering where you had wandered off to." The masked assassin smiled looking the boy over. "You're still wearing that. I thought I told you to put on your uniform. You can't take over the world in gym clothes."

Glancing at the apprentice uniform he had worn once before, Robin's eyes narrowed. "Last time one of your apprentices wore your colors they had their nervous system taken over. This wouldn't have that same technology would it?"

"Terra was never you, Robin," Slade answered with a smile. "I wanted her powers, her potential, but the physical and mental part was always lacking. In her case I had to make sure the proper corrections were administered. Unlike you, she didn't work well when I _motivated _her. So I used other methods. I believe you put it best, 'little girls are fickle'."

"You didn't really answer my question." Robin replied crossing his arms.

"Then maybe I should answer your question with one of my own." Slade stated. "You left early this morning, where did you go?"

"Here and there." Robin answered dryly. He could tell the villain wanted to talk not listen.

Walking forward the assassin put a hand on Robin's shoulder and turned him around in the same manner a parent wanted to lecture a son would. The man's large hand holding firm to his shoulder, Robin could feel Slade's grip get tighter. His one eye narrowing the man corrected himself, "Or more importantly. What _have_ you been scheming?"

Pain blinded the smaller boy's judgment for a moment as Slade's boot jetted forward the steel tips slamming into Robin's side.

Which was funny considering it was his abdomen the man had been aiming for.

Smiling Slade crossed his arms amused. "Your reaction time is much better than usual, Robin. You almost saw that one coming. I'll ask again. What were you doing?"

Biting back pain as he clutched his burning rib cage, Robin smiled darkly. He had found and deactivated all the tracking devices Slade had stuck on him that morning. So the only other explanation to Slade knowing he was missing was that he had been followed. Standing despite the pain Robin hadn't avoided the man's attack well as he had wanted. "You like lectures," Robin wheezed, "Why don't _you_ tell _me_?"

"Robin, you never do run out of things to say." Slade chuckled. In a blink of an eye the man had changed his footwork for better balance and cleared the distance between them. Slade's fist shot forward snapping open to grab his young partner by the throat.

All he got was a small strand of the boy's black hair.

Robin narrowly avoided his grasp, twisting under the larger man and propelling his body backward. Vaulting his hands to the ground the former Teen Wonder jolted himself a few yards away to escape the man's striking range.

"You really are getting better." Slade commented as he stared at the black locks that lay clutched in his palm. Few people could escape a move like that. "But tell me what were you doing in Gotham?"

"Oh. Is that what this is about?" The boy asked as he crouched on the floor, ever ready for Slade's next attack.

"You contacted someone." Slade asked calmly as he stopped his attack. "First the family doctor then Wayne Enterprises." His eyes narrowing he asked, "Why there? Why Bruce Wayne?"

_It should be obvious._ Robin thought to himself before realized Slade was still staring at him expectantly for the answer.

The boy's mouth went slack for just a instant before his eyes widened.

_Oh._

If Robin could have felt those emotions he might have been relieved.

Slade didn't know.

It suddenly made sense if Slade had bought the information of his identity through the Riddler. A sidekick's identity was nothing important. In Gotham one robin was a small fish in the presence of the looming bat. And Edward Nigma was too much of a narcissist, just like every other sicko in that city. He wouldn't give Batman's identity away to just anyone, or else it wouldn't be a riddle.

He wanted Batman's secret just for himself.

Shaking his head Robin couldn't help almost let a laugh escape his lips. For someone as smart as Slade to not see something that glaringly obvious was hysterical.

But the mask Batman wore named Bruce Wayne was a _really_ convincing one. And Dick Grayson had a unusual background, being a circus acrobat and having a motive for revenge at a early age. Any crazed lunatic in Gotham could have wandered up to him and proposed to him to be a super hero. Living in boarding schools, having a distant billionaire for a legal guardian would have made it easy to be Robin all without Bruce Wayne knowing it. After all Bruce Wayne was too busy being a social butterfly to pay much attention to a unruly, adopted teenage son. Especially one that could qualify for the Olympics by the age of nine.

And Robin realized just like that: Bruce was safe from Slade and the Joker.

Which meant he was free to do what he wanted without them getting in the way.

His good mood soaring the boy brought himself out of his thoughts. This was too beautiful. Meeting Slade's stare he answered, "I was saying goodbye to Gotham." The boy's lips curled into that insanely cruel smile of his as he added. "At the beginning of this you asked me what I wanted. When we attack in two days, I want Wayne Enterprises to be the first place in Gotham we hit."

"Why Robin." Slade said. "Attacking the work place of the man who took you into his home and raised you. Destroying all those innocent lives just to get to him. That's positively evil." The man chuckled. "You really are becoming just like me."

Smiling back at Slade, Robin eyes slitted with amusement. _You have no idea. _

Thanks to Leslie, Robin had Batman's attention.

Now all he needed was the Titans.

But he had time.

There was still two days left till the world was turned upside down.

Well one actually... if you counted the fact that Robin never really cared for other people's schedules.

To be continued...


	19. Fighting the Good Fight

**Author's Rantings: As I was writing this chapter I suddenly realized where is KF? He disappeared from story boarding and I realized I had left him behind a few chapters ago. So I fixed that and put him back in the batch. Also in this chapter on a side note I wanted to try to give my own perspective on why the Teen Titans Robin is (or was before I messed with him) such a broody, angry, very Batman like character. This is just my own interpretation of how things went down back in old days to make Robin the angst case he is sometimes.  
**

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 19: Fighting the Good Fight

-Titans Tower-

Their mission was clear and although their objective uncertain the Titans realized they were one member short before they could act. Opening the door to the roof, Starfire could feel the cold wind hit her like a kick to the stomach as she looked out and spied who the team had been looking for.

Shivering slightly in the cold, Kid Flash was dangling his long spindly legs off the side in eerily the same place that Robin himself had done nights earlier. And it was a rare sight to the see the normally capricious, quick silver youth standing so perfectly still.

"We were worried about you." Starfire said gently.

"I've had a lot on my mind. Sorry I didn't help with the investigation." KF replied solemnly.

"That is not important... have you been here all day?" The beautiful girl asked floating towards the limber boy before her.

"Yeah." Flash said numbly staring out at the city. "I hate standing still, but strangely... my feet just don't want to move right now. It's like their made of stone." Not facing her he asked. "Find anything useful out?"

"Perhaps." Starfire said quietly as she stared down at the ground in shame. "But the others have not acted yet. They are... and I am..." She paused pushing a lock of hair behind her ears, "... afraid... of what we will find when get there."

"You know I've always thought it's better to take action than sit and do nothing." Flash muttered. "Even if the choices I was making weren't right, at least I took a step." Knotting a fist in his red hair he cursed. "But this time I don't know what to think Star." Blanching he tried to force down the tangled emotions knotted in his insides. "I've never hesitated before." He almost spat, "... but this time, I don't know what to do..." Closing his eyes he snarled. "I thought I was stronger than this but I'm scared. None of us are safe from what Slade's little pill can do."

The girl beside him reached out to him but Kid Flash shook her hand off the moment it touched his back. Clenching his fists Kid Flash hissed, "Just knowing that something like this could happen to _Robin_... makes me feel so human, so weak. And that's the one thing I don't want to feel like that in a situation like this." Turning to her he tried to force something that looked like a sorry out of a smile. "I'm sorry, Star. Not trying to be jerk but I'm not exactly the hugs and squeezing kinda guy..." The wind whipping through his hair normal mercurial boy sighed. "But if you have a ear, and a minute... I could sure use someone that will shut up and just let me spill my guts for a while."

"I will always be able to lend an ear for the spilling of the guts." Starfire smiled before she looked him over. "You and Robin... go way back don't you?"

It was a strange mix of emotion on Flash's face as he turned to answer that question. The evening sky washed out most of his features but she could still see the burning pools of sadness echoing up from Flash's eyes.

"Yeah." Kid Flash said quietly his mouth curling into a smile that seemed like a childlike reminder of better days.. "I've known him for years, heck, it seems more like lifetimes ago." Taking a deep breath he added, '"When we were both very different people. Back when he was the comic relief instead of the goal crazed antihero type."

"I find it hard to picture." The beautiful alien girl murmured.

"It _is_ hard to picture, but Robin's nothing like how he used to be when he was young." Flash stated before he had to chuckle as he took in his own words.

"Not that he's old or anything but... he lost that part of himself. Sometimes I used to think he was almost as bad as the Justice League. You know I hated seeing him like that. Sometimes I think the old timers in the league don't have dreams anymore, they only have purposes. Missions. Reasons to fight the good fight."

"I think the saddest thing in the world is to live without dreams. But once you get past opening mini malls and kissing babies that's what this job really does to you, it sucks you dry. All of us superheroes push that thought back in to the dark corners of our mind. We put on these suits because we want to help people. So you try not think about the fact we'll all probably end up miserable, bitter, and alone. But it happens. That's why a lot of heroes either end up dead, or they crack under the pressure. We want to protect everyone, to make this world safe for the people we love and all the innocent people out there... but not too many heroes can take the body bag after body bag that comes with it. And no matter how many times you save the day, there will _always_ be a next time. That's the price of being a hero. We don't get to have the things everyone else takes for granted."

"Robin tried so hard to fight all that bad stuff but eventually it got to him too." Turning to Starfire he breathed, "I wish you could have seen him back in the day. See I knew a Robin once upon a time that laughed, I mean, really _laughed_. He was the nicest, most light hearted guy I knew at the time." The red haired boy sighed as he continued. "The Bat is _not _Superman. Or even the Flash. Before Robin showed up, Batman was almost as big a wacko as the nut jobs he puts in Arkham. The man wasn't a hero, he was more of a costumed psycho with a agenda for revenge until Robin changed that. Robin became the light to his dark, the edge of the line that kept Batman from losing himself. He was a lot more than just a sidekick. Ultimately he was the safety net that kept Bats human."

His eyes filling with sadness again Flash shook his head. "But Robin _was_ human from the start. Seeing all those innocent lives and countless victims destroyed again and again will change a person. You can't walk away with your innocence in a place like Gotham City. After a few years, Robin became a smaller version of Batman. It was almost like watching someone die from the inside out..." Pausing because it was painful to cough up Flash muttered, "And then Tony Zucco almost destroyed him."

"W-who is Tony Zucco?" Starfire asked finding words almost difficult for a moment after listening to him with such intensity. She had known Robin's past was a somber one but to hear it from someone like Flash made her ache all the more for him.

"No sale, Red. That's a story you should ask _him_ yourself someday." Flash said cryptically.

Sighing Starfire only nodded, it seemed the Justice League liked their secrets and Kid Flash wasn't going to say anymore on the subject.

The red haired boy smiled softly at her taking a moment to pause.

"Anyways when Robin decided to become more than human I thought he'd crack for sure. By deciding to just be the mask, that was the only way he thought he could make it up to Batman and himself. He's got a sense of logic that's_ his_ alone." Laughing he shook his head. "But he's not like the rest of us, no super powers, and he doesn't have Bat's bank account. Nope... Robin's just a teenager in tights trying to save the world. For a while, I didn't really liked the idea of the Titans because I knew what he was doing to himself. But... I was wrong. Robin's a stubborn idiot. He's probably still lying to himself but he didn't stop being human when he became your leader, he started _living_ again. That kid's been dead from the neck up for years, but you guys... gave him dreams again. For the first time in years he could be a teenager, he could laugh, he could even _fail_."

Smiling at her he whispered, "I don't think you guys realized how much that meant."

"I am glad you have been so honest." Starfire murmured hugging her knees. "But I believe you have not given Robin enough credit. It is true that he is... very _intense_ at times, but I have never thought that Robin was a person without dreams." Smiling warmly she added. "The Teen Titans would not follow someone like that who would give up so easily. To us, Robin is very much the same person you remember him as. Someone we believe in... _that_ is why he is our leader."

"Leader or not he's still nuts." Clenching his teeth Flash snarled. "Which is why I just can't accept all this. After all the crud he's put me through over the years I can't let it end like this..." Grinding his closed fist into his palm he added, "Which is why when I get my hands on Robin's skinny neck, man he'll pay for stressing me out like this!"

Bringing a fist to her mouth, Starfire tried to mask her laugh. "It is good to see that you are still in good enough spirits to do the kicking of the butt." She said with a chuckle.

"Whooh. Sorry I worried you guys, I was having a blue moment but I'm out of it." Smirking Flash crinkled his nose and flashed her his most rougish smile. "You know me, I can stay in a funk about as long as I can stay in one place." Stretching his arms up over his head the boy shook himself out. "Ah, that was a lot of emotional baggage I managed to shake off. Thanks for listening, Red."

Smiling Starfire shook her head. "It is what friends do."

"So?" Flash asked looking like himself again. "When are we going to go break down this Slade guy's door? I've been standing in one spot for too long."

- Abandoned Factory-

_"I want Wayne Enterprises to be the first place in Gotham we hit."_

Slade hadn't gotten as far as he had trusting people.

It was easy to tell a lie from truth when you learned how to listen for it. So he watched Robin's every move, every flash of his throat as he took a breath. Either Robin was telling the truth or he had become so deranged Slade just couldn't tell this time. There was no change in Robin's voice, no drizzle of sweat to moisten the boy's flesh. Even the tiny shift of light in the iris of Robin's eyes all should have been the assassin's spies. But Robin's body didn't deny anything his lips said to be anything but truth.

It was a perfectly convincing story save one thing.

Slade knew Robin better than that. And likewise, Slade guessed Robin knew him better too.

So for now, they'd play their little games pretending not to know what the other was thinking. Intrigue was always the life blood of a detective after all. Walking out of Robin's room the masked assassin took one final glance behind him before he went on his way. He was a patient man, for now he would wait and let his little monster have his fun. This creature was more than a apprentice to him now. Slade had put a lot of time and effort into Robin and like Rose he too was curious to see what type of world they would come to see in the hands of one little boy.

Once Slade was gone, Robin shook his head. Those love pats Slade had given him had hurt a lot more than he had wanted to admit.  
Moving to the bed he was surprised to nearly trip over something crouched halfway under the bed sheets. A little outcry followed after before Robin bent down and lifted the sheets up. "Rose?" Robin blinked seeing the little mass of white emerge out of the corner. "You _were_ here."

Silence.

"I was here." The little girl replied as she climbed out from under his bed. "So where were you?"

"Supervillianing." The older boy said cryptically before he reached out to pat her head. To his slight surprise the girl moved away from him before he could touch her as if slightly repulsed by him. He watched her for several seconds but she refused to look at him, her large green eyes fixated on the floor instead.

Robin didn't like the strange tension in the air.

"Don't be mad. I didn't like being by myself with Mr. Slade." The little girl explained as she could feel his annoyance at her behavior.

"That's still no reason to hide," He said somewhat coldly reaching for her arm and pulling her a little closer. "What's going on Rose? I'm not Jericho, I can't read your mind." Eyes narrowing he added everything up. "And you weren't hiding from Slade just now... you were hiding from _me._"

He had hit the nail on the head, he could tell just by looking at her.

There was awkward silence between the two before she finally let out a sniffle. "Robin... what do you really want?"

"I told you already. To get rid of the obstacles in my way." Robin said plainly.

"The Titans and Batman are in your way?" Rose asked.

"Of course they are." Robin answered. "You know they'll never just let me do what I want to."

Looking at him Rose's eyes burned with anger, "Liar. I know what you're going to do."

_I K-N-O-W._

It echoed in his ears but despite hearing that, Robin's face remained as calm and serene as it normally looked.

Rose however wasn't so calm, her little white fists balled before she cried out again. "You're a liar Robin. Last night I followed you when you worked on the super computer. I saw you, and what you did to it. I know what you're really going to do."

Robin stood there for a moment not phased by her outburst. "You followed me?" He asked. Rigidly he turned to her before he simply let out a sigh. "That complicates things Rose."

Bending down he cuffed her cheek. "Did anyone else see you?"

"No." She choked her eyes blurring with tears.

"Ssh, there there Rose." Robin cooed gently stroking her hair. "You shouldn't be ashamed of that." Taking her in his arms the boy rocked her back and forth. "Ah jeez, I'm sorry I scared you. That must have been quite a shock."

Sniffling the girl couldn't hide her relief. For a few moments she was truly glad he was insane, because a normal person would have surely exploded at that.

"But I really wish you _hadn't_ seen that." Robin sighed again.

"You're not mad are you?" Rose asked her eyes full of anticipation for his answer. Here in this insane place she had grown dependent on his strange affection as her only way to keep her own sanity. And even mad, Rose had found that she truly started to care for the boy who held the world's fate in his hand.

"Yeah I'm a little mad, Rose." Robin said honestly. "But I'm happy too."

"Happy?" She asked confused.

"Mmm." He nodded with a smile, "Because now I understand that you've finally chose a side."

His hand shot out closing tightly around her throat before she could even see it move.

Blackness swirled around her eyes as the pressure and pain bit into her very being.

Before she blacked out completely she saw a sweet smile cross his lips,

"So I don't have to hesitate anymore." Was all he stated.

To be continued...


	20. Angel Smiles

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 20: Angel Smiles

-Jump City-

(The Abandoned Factory)

"… Are you awake yet, Doctor?"

A fog seemed to clear from her head and the old woman in question slowly realized this was not a dream.

Words were formed.

She could hear herself say something but was unaware of what it was.

Speech seemed somehow foreign; each syllable twisted into nothing but useless sound as it passed her lips. It was only when she opened her eyes that she realized why.

A tight blue cloth had been wrapped into her mouth and it pressed hard under teeth, quickly gagging away any words she uttered.

The good doctor wasn't going anywhere fast and she knew it.

She had been there for days but this was the first time in all that time she had been fully conscious. Her attacker had made sure she had been heavily sedated for most of her stay, and whether that was a kindness or an act of cruelty she had yet to find out. All she could decipher from what little light managed to seep through the broken ceiling windows was that this was a basement in what looked like an old factory. Not this time. This was one time she could not second-guess her jailer's thoughts, despite all her years and the pretty degrees that hung on her wall.

_No._

He was not like the other mad men she had dealt with in the past. The types that were out only to stroke their own ego and feed off the terror in their victim's eyes. Unlike the others, this one was not interested in such small things like fear and manipulation. Not even life and death for that matter. Leslie knew quite well that she was no longer a person in the eyes of Dick Grayson: simply a lifeless object. Her purpose could be served just as easily with a pulse as without one. Now, she was merely the worm to lure a much bigger fish out of hiding.

In the far corner, encased in darkness the monster that had imprisoned her was working on something. He seemed completely preoccupied with the bundle hidden underneath.

She was probably better off if it stayed that way.

Closing her eyes Leslie fought the urge to wretch as she tried to push the fabric from her mouth. The taste of cotton and dried blood was displeasing to her tongue as she worked. But her attacker never cut corners she soon came to realize. Still so much like his mentor despite himself.

Defeated she soon stopped her efforts and simply stared at him.

_What had happened to the somber and beautiful little boy that Bruce loved so much?_

Bowing her head she let out a small whimper. She ached for him and for Bruce and for all the good things in this world that suddenly seemed dead.

But despite all things, she still didn't want let a madman see her cry.

As if reading her mind Robin kept his back turned to her until she finished before idly moving from his spot on the worker's bench. Walking over to her he gently undid the gag tied around her mouth. His hands so soft and comforting despite the horrible surroundings he stroked her cheek once before speaking.

"I'm sure you have questions." He stated calmly his intense blue eyes and strange angel smile never fading. "But please be patient a little while longer, Leslie. Once I'm finished here, I'll be right with you."

There was an unspoken threat in those gentle words, and despite herself Leslie felt her tongue turn to ash in her mouth. For several minutes her mouth was forced into terror filled silence. But there was something eerie and downright frightening about the way he was gently working with whatever was with him in the dark.

Until she saw it.

Leslie's eyes widened in horror as the body of a little girl lay lifelessly where Robin had placed her. Like a little porcelain doll the child's chest was frozen her skin dead white. Feeling her heart drop into her stomach Leslie could be silent no longer.

"What in the name of God are you doing, Dick?" She shrieked finding her voice strong despite how small and trembling it felt in her throat.

"Hmm?" Robin asked almost groggily as he lifted his head up blinking his large eyelashes innocently. Then his lips curled into a dark smile, obviously amused by her choice of words. "God doesn't have anything to do with what I'm doing." He replied simply. Then after waiting a moment to revel in her disgust he smiled,

"But she's not dead, my good doctor. I mean, if that's what you're worried about."

"Dick" The old woman choked shaking her head. "Why are you doing this?"

"Which part?" Robin asked curiously. "You're oversimplifying things." Lifting the girl's arm up he didn't wait for an answer. In his free hand Leslie could barely make out what looked like phial full of silver liquid and a small set of booster shots.

"What are those?" The old woman asked despite her fear. "Drugs?"

"No. Ionic neutralizers. They short circuit nanochips." Robin replied casually as he worked. "They're a precautionary measure. You see, Slade's new version of CP9 is being pumped into the air filtration system of this entire building." His lips thinning just a little he added. "Since you've both been here for more than a day, you're both affected too. In laymen's terms, Doc. Right now the most advanced computerized plague in the world is ravaging through your body. Lucky you, right?"

Leslie only gaped at him, her lips looking something like a dead fish's before he grinned. "Don't look so scared, Leslie. It's still in the dormant state at the moment." Then in the same tone a normal boy would use to describe a free ticket to an amusement park or his first kiss from a pretty girl he beamed. "Imagine millions of little bugs inside of you. And inside those bugs are microscopic chambers filled to the brim with nerve damaging chemicals. All the bugs need is a signal from the computer upstairs and the chambers open. I'm not going too fast right?" He asked glancing at her over his shoulder. "No of course I'm not. Anyways the nanochips in the chambers work like the nucleus of a cell, telling the chemicals which part of the brain to destroy when the chambers release." Leaning in for the finale he breathed. "By tomorrow night every man, woman and child in a three hundred mile radius will be dead, completely insane or vegetables." Filling up one of the shots with the silver liquid he closed his eyes in a half smile. "As far as evil schemes go, this one is pretty good don't you think?"

"You're _insane_." Leslie spat.

"Yeah, that's what they've been telling me." Robin smiled. Turning to the little girl on the table Robin found a vein and gently drained the fluid into her forearm.

Leslie was filled with such an intense sense of horror she almost felt sick. But before her stomach could act on it something suddenly clicked in the back of her head. "Wait, Dick." She breathed. "If you say the disease is in the air here, that means you're affected too!"

Smiling Robin gave a single nod.

"But _why_?" Leslie choked. "Tomorrow when you set off the signal, you'll all die too. What would someone like the Joker and that other madman have to gain from that?"

Laughing softly Robin turned away from her, clutching his hand to his cheek as if she had missed something painfully stupid.

…

"Haven't you figured it out yet, Doctor?" The boy asked.

His black hair fell in tattered strands across his burning blue eyes as he spoke. Eyes that Leslie was certain were as hauntingly beautiful and twisted as Satan's was at the point. "_They_ didn't pump the disease into the air systems, _I_ did."

"No one uses me, Leslie. Not _anymore_." He stated before his mouth twisted slightly in disgust as he looked at the girl on the table. "Even that little brat used me. No, tomorrow Joker and Slade will die just like everyone else." His eyes narrowing he breathed, "I got bored of all that, Leslie. So this time I'm not the comic relief. I'm not the sidekick or the apprentice, hell... I'm not even the leader. From here on out it's just me. I don't _need_ them."

Leaning back he smiled as he clasped his hands around each other and placed his chin on them in an almost dreamy manner. "You see after tomorrow, good and bad won't matter anymore. It won't exist. I can't think of anything more perfect than that. Can you?"

It was silent after that.

But to Leslie it was the type of depth that washed over you like a tepid bog. Without words, Leslie felt like she was watching herself drown from inside her own head. She could feel hot tears streaming down her face and this time she didn't try to hide them from him.

_A monster_. He was a monster now.

And yet, something about all this felt strange. Staring at the silver vial Leslie shook her head.

No if that was true he wouldn't be doing all this. She had to cling to that belief.

"Is that really what you want, Dick?" Smiling gently the woman shook her head. "You're a very good liar, but I just don't believe you." Looking at him the boy she loved like a grandson seemed so close and yet so far away. "I know better."

His left eye twitching ever so slightly, Robin almost looked annoyed.

_Almost._

"Are we still playing doctor, Leslie?" Dick asked. Sighing he ran a hand through his dark locks. "I've gotten kinda tired of that game over the years."

"Your actions give you away, Dick." Leslie smiled. "You're trying too hard to get yourself caught."

His smile looking a little more bitter than it had a minute ago Robin sighed, "Well that's all the time we have for today, Leslie. Maybe we can pick up on this on our next session. Assuming there is a next one." Filling a second booster shot with the strange silver liquid he held out his free hand. "See I'm late too go see Titans. So I need you to be good and hold still now."

All Leslie could see was the angel smile before the darkness seemed to engulf both of them.

"…It will hurt worse if you struggle." Robin whispered.

To be continued...


	21. Lessons in Braking

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 21: Lessons in Braking

-Industrial Highway RI 99-

Kid Flash was only supposed to be gone for a half an hour. Then he and the Titans would find Robin.

Just a quick run to Gotham to check in on Batman, and then right back.

Funny how life never made things simple.

The black highway was strangely deserted for it only being around seven o clock at night. But KF didn't pay too much attention to it, this was the industrial backwoods and Jump City was still miles away. His mind was still lulling over what the Batman had told him. Shaking his head in disbelief he tried to process the words that had been said to him. If what Batman had said was really true...

Biting back what came next Flash refused to accept that. He couldn't jump to conclusions just yet.

_Still..._

_What would he tell the others when he got back?_

_What would Red think?_

Picking up his speed he leaned his body into the road and cursed.

Then an instant later the ground split beneath him. Eyes widening Flash recognized one of Robin's flash bombs right before it hit the area behind him.

BOOOOOOOOOM.

For an instant the fastest boy alive felt as though time had stood still. In the distance he could make out a figure perched on a light pole. Someone who looked painfully familiar. Then the metallic clang of bell like objects littered the area around him. But it was far too late to avoid them. In less than a heartbeat the smoke from the bomb blew over him followed by the stinging cut of something sharp before he fell.

Hard.

Like a semi with the brakes cut Flash fell, his movements so violent that sparks almost rose up from the earth as his body and the speed connected with it hit solid gravel. Instantly he rolled, his knees and arms striking the pavement like someone thrown off a speeding vehicle. His own powers worked against him in a sickly intense manner as the street ground away clothes, skin and everything else in between as he skid against the highway. Wrapping his arms around his head was the only thing he could do to protect his face in the process. The boy must have rolled for nearly a hundred feet before he slammed into a cement road guard and was suddenly very still.

From his spot on the lamp post Robin shook his head and let out a whistle.

"That one looked like it hurt." He muttered to himself flinching as he saw the cracks in the cement guard all the way from where he was standing.

But just as he was expecting Flash didn't say still for very long.

A choked gasp of pain erupted from the boy who quickly regained consciousness. He let a small moan his whole body shaking before Flash weakly managed to get enough control of his arms to lift his head up off the pavement. Whatever had hit him had happened so quickly Flash hadn't even realized he had been falling until it was too late.

But what had made him trip in the first place?  
His eyes blurring he was still too dizzy and disoriented to fully get to his feet. Turning back to the road he tried to make out what had happened but it was too far away. The only thing that remained were two streak lines of blood littered across the highway like oil spills.

He paled inwardly when he realized that blood was his.

"Man! That was something off a cartoon show! You nearly skidded the length of two highway exits!" Robin whistled walking towards him. "Who needs land mines when you have novelty jacks!" Eyes narrowing in delight he breathed, "Especially sharp, pointy, _ridiculously_ large jacks made courtesy of the Joker." Putting his hands casually behind his head Robin grinned, "For being a nut job he sure has some nasty looking toys huh, KF?" Smirking the boy added, "Sorry for tripping you like that, but you never were one to pay attention to traffic lights. And we need to talk."

"Robin...?" Flash breathed biting back the shooting pain in his body as he struggled to raise his head high enough to look at his attacker. It _was_ his friend. Or at least, _used _to be him. He was maskless, his wild blue eyes covered now only by the occasion strand of black hair that fell in his face. But it was what he was wearing that made Flash's blood boil. As he approached his friend Slade's crest on Robin's suit caught the moonlight, sliding light into Kid Flash's eyes as if somehow teasing him.

"I wouldn't try to get up if I were you." Robin warned watching as KF tried in vain to move.

Everything hurt.

From his torn, crackled skin where the pavement had burned him to his pounding head and bones. But most of all his feet were stinging with a ripping pain he had never experienced before in his life. His feet were useless at the moment and he knew it even without having to look at them. But Kid Flash always was a glutton for punishment. After a moment or two of preparing himself he slowly cracked open his eyes.

Peering down at the chunks of metal, past the strings of flesh and leather he stared in horror at the mangled bits of skin that seconds earlier had been two healthy normal looking feet. The soles of his boots no longer existed, instead replaced by inches and inches of jagged metal points covered in dark red blood.

Saying it was painful would have been the understatement of the millennium, but the pain was deadened by burning rage the moment KF saw the slight grin on Robin's face.

"You bastard..." He snarled through his pain looking up at the boy as he lay helplessly on the gravel road. The fact that Robin would so readily cripple Flash's pride by destroying his precious legs was all the proof he needed. This wasn't Robin anymore.

"Oh come on Wally." Robin shrugged staring the crippled boy down. "With healing powers like yours we both know this is just some temporary discomfort. It wouldn't be any fun if I could cripple you _that_ easily."

"You're insane." Kid Flash spat before a wretched sob escaped his lips as he tried in vain to pull his leg up. A piece of glass in your foot was painful, but having thousands of little spikes embedded in heels at 200 mph was enough to force even Flash to whimper like a small child. He fought the tears will all his might but they leaked out of his eyes at such a rate he couldn't stop them. Biting his lip he managed to crawl a few inches until he could at least get his knees under him. KF's pride wouldn't allow him to be defeated on his back.

"So... now what?" Kid Flash asked his voice a raspy wheeze as he gave his former friend an icy look. "First you just disappear... then.. all this crap? You know a phone call could have worked... just as easily if you... w...were trying to get my attention." Eyes narrowing he thought about it as calmly as he could.

He was alone.

His super powers were KO'D.

And he was at the mercy of ego-drived maniac who knew every weakness he had.

Yeah, it was turning out to be one of those nights.

Grabbing one of the metal jacks he heaved and closed his eyes. Stiffling a moan as it came out of his heel with a sick jolt Kid Flash threw the thing to the ground. One out, three hundred more to go. Panting he looked at Robin. "So now what? Are you going to kill me? Take me prisoner? Our do I have to listen to a boring monologue first?"

"Heh." Robin chuckled. "Always have a quip ready don't you, KF? Nah, I'm not going to kill you." His face twisted slightly into a smirk and one that made Flash's blood run cold in his veins. "Although you might wish I had."

Stepping a few inches closer Robin bent down so they were eye level. "Right now Slade and Joker are waiting for me in Jump City but I lost my Titan communicator the other night after Joey and I had that disagreement."

"You mean after you beat the shit out of him and left him for dead." Kid Flash corrected.

"Right, when I did that." Robin smiled. "Since I don't have the access codes anymore, you're going to help us get into Titan Tower."

"Like hell I will-" Wally snarled his teeth clenching as he spat out those words.

Smiling Robin didn't seem phased by his uncooperative behavior as he removed something from his belt. Eyes widening KF suddenly realized it was his bo-staff. With a snap of his skilled wrist Robin had brought his staff down hard on KF's knee cap. Tsk-tsking Robin shook his head, "For being clever, you always were dumb. I'm not _asking_ you."

"_AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!_"

The boy under him screamed as muscle was torn and cold steel slammed into his leg before a gentle pop was heard. His knee cap shattered instantly, KF flailed wildly for a moment almost like a dying fish as he clung to his knee with both hands. Pain flooded every cell in his body but he quickly realized he didn't have time to mourn it's loss. Robin's leg came up in front of him and the older boy tried in blind pain to use his arms as a guard as the Boy Wonder swiftly kicked him in the stomach. The wind knocked out of him, Flash rolled a few inches his body stiffening from pain and loss of blood. "Do... what you want with me... Robin." The fastest boy alive choked.

"... I ... won't let you... hurt the... Titans..." Flash heaved from his spot on the ground unable to even lift his head at this point.

"A true solider to the very end, Wally." Robin commended.

"Robin why the hell are you doing this?" Flash asked using his last bit of energy to find the strength to scream. "They're still waiting for you, you prick!" Eyes burning with angry tears he snarled, "All of the Titans... even the _Bat_... for _christsakes_!"

Looking at Robin the boy's pleas fell on deaf ears but KF wasn't going to shut up until he was finished. Sweat pouring down his face, the red haired boy weakly shook his head in disbelief. "They're still clinging to hope that they can save you. So why? Why are you doing this? What is the Joker and Slade doing to you, man? JEEZ DUDE, WAKE THE HELL UP!" Kid Flash hissed.

Strangely that last part had shut the Boy Wonder up. Above him Robin's eyes were hidden in the shadow of his bangs his expression blank. And although Flash could only see his mouth he was certain Robin was either laughing at him.

Or he was crying.

"They can't save me this time, Wally." Robin murmured after several moments of silence. "But please- don't worry."

"This is one thing I can promise you..." His former friend whispered just before his bo-staff came down on KF's head.

"It will all be over soon."

To be continued...


	22. Betrayal

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 22: Betrayal

-Industrial Highway RI 99-

Angelic.

That was the only word Robin could think of as he watched the fallen boy lie in a pool of his own blood. Despite everything though, Wally looked satisfied. As if he had no qualms or hesitation in the foolish choices he had made.

Torture and being beaten an inch away from death had done nothing to loosen his tongue. Flicking the blood off his staff Robin let a small smile escape his lips.

"I admire your conviction, Wally." Dick breathed staring down at his former friend. "Although being brave didn't save you."

If he was capable of the emotion, Robin would have felt disappointed in his own actions especially in lieu of his friend's stubbornness.

Wally had gotten him more worked up than he should.

In fact Robin had almost gotten upset.

Considering he was dead to those emotions, it was a little surprising to the boy that KF's last words had shook him up as much as they had.

The Titans hadn't given up on him.

Batman... Bruce hadn't lost faith in him.

They were still waiting for him.

It was touching to hear, and that part of himself he could no longer understand strangely ached.

They still believed in him.

He hadn't expected it, hadn't thought someone like him who had betrayed them so utterly deserved something as beautiful as unyielding devotion. To know that if he left this place now, that if he could return to the people he loved maybe they could find a cure. There was still hope. Still a chance.

Maybe he didn't have to go through with this...

_"Pzzzt!"  
_

Forcing back a laugh the boy put his hand to his mouth so it wouldn't escape."Sure. And right after that I'll cure world hunger and disprove global warming." Robin sneered as he heaved a sigh and squatted down so that he could at least finish part of what he originally set out to do. Stepping over the boy's spindly legs Robin was careful to avoid the large gaping bruises that hid the place where KF's newly broken kneecap lay as he pulled at the boy's arm and started working on him. "I mean don't get me wrong, Wally it was a nice thought." He said to the half dead boy underneath him, quickly pulling out another silver booster shot and plunging it into the hero's wrist. "But you guys need to work on your sermons. No wonder good guys can't ever convince bad guys to change their ways, you guys are boring! And sappy! Jeez, do you have some eggs to go with that ham?" Putting a hand to his forehead he swooned dramatically, "Blah. Blah. No, Dick! Why? Blah. Blah." Finished with his assignment the smaller boy dragged the broken hunk of flesh and metal onto his motorcycle. Steadying his half dead passenger Robin sighed again and looked him over idly. Slade was going to give him hell when he came back without the codes.

Oh well, he had failed in getting the information but if the subtle approach hadn't worked they could always use the direct approach.

Titans Tower was strong but it was still just steel and wood once you got down to it.

"C'mon buddy." He muttered to the injured boy as he started his ignition. "The least I can do is give you ride a home." He said with a sick smile as the motorcycle started screeching down the road.

-Titan's Tower-

(Common Area)

"I don't like this." Cyborg said as he opened a new tab in the security monitor's camera system. "KF should have been back by now." Unable to answer him Jericho only bit his lip and nodded in response as he handed the older boy a small case of medical discs.

"Betcha he's flirting with a cute pair of legs somewhere in Gotham, he'll be back in no time." BB attempted to joke as he tried to balance climbing the stairs with the mountain of paperwork he was carrying. "Here." He said dully once he made it to the top, "Raven finished going over the files Batman sent us regarding the Joker." Frizzling he let his teeth hang out in a obvious grimace, "I only glanced at that stuff and I'm going to have nightmares for a week. This guy is sick."

"Sick or not anything we can use in all that?" Cyborg asked his cybernetic eye scanning the folder as he leafed the paper idly with one hand.

"Nothing good." Beast Boy sighed, "The guy's a freak. And it gets better. It says that prolonged exposure to that gas the Joker uses will lead to permanent insanity if treatment isn't registered in 48 hours or less." His ears lowering Beast Boy tried to stomach the words he was trying to force out, "If any of that stuff is in whatever made Robin freak out, we're already too late."

"I don't think we have to worry about that." Cyborg said softly trying to convince himself as much as Beast Boy, "Slade would want to control Robin, not make him completely unstable. I doubt that anything the Joker made is precise enough for Slade. Whatever happened to Robin, I doubt the gas has anything to with it."

Silently cringing Jericho stared at the floor unable to meet anyone's eyes as the conversation continued. While meeting the new Robin had been one of the most terrifying experiences of his life, he was hardly a raving lunatic. In some ways Robin would be less dangerous if he had been merely exposed to the Joker's gas. Biting back a wash of shame, Joey felt horrible for thinking that way. At least this way with Slade's pill there was some hope to save Robin. And as long as there was a chance no matter how small they would cling to it.

Joey didn't want to fail Robin again.

Cyborg good eye hardened just a little as he watched the silent boy from the corner of his eye. He felt guilty for keeping his mouth shut but Jericho had to fight with his demons on his own. Nothing anyone else said would make his betrayal any less real. Turning back to the screen Cyborg finished the final adjustments before he got up. "At this rate KF is just going to have to catch up with us, we're running out of time. Is everyone almost ready?"

"Yeah." Beast Boy said with a smile. "According to KF's last transmission Batman said the rendezvous point Robin gave him is about three hours west of Jump City. If we leave now we'll just make it in time for-" The changeling was suddenly cut short as he and his large companion were knocked off the ground by a earth shattering force.

A deafening blast erupted instantly shaking the Tower to its very core.

A sickening moan followed as the steel framing of Titan's Tower bent and collapsed from the pressure. The light fixtures cracked and snapped off, sparks flying as the power was cut from the building.

Dust and broken ceiling fixtures covered the room, creating a cloud of dust and debris so thick they could barely see.

"Ugn..."

Picking himself up Cyborg threw off the wooden banister that had fallen on him. "Everyone alright?" He called trying to make out the other two in all the rubble. A large green caterpillar slunk out of a nearby collection of wood chips before reverting into a mangled, scratched up boy.

"Define 'okay'?" Beast Boy muttered shaking the rocks out of his ears. "Ugh... I just saw my life flash before my eyes and it had way too many scenes that didn't involve girls." Spitting out a wad of dust he glanced around the room, "Nnngh, where's Joey?"

Coughing and hacking a pile of rocks suddenly moved and Jericho threw up his hands and made a weak attempt at a wave from the corner. "You okay?" Cyborg asked before he got a thumbs up in response as the blond boy managed to climb out of the collection of boulders.

"Good to see everyone still has there parts," The taller boy said honestly as he barreled over to the security monitors. Most of the computers were broken but he found a few of the devices that had merely been knocked to the side. Still all that Cyborg could make out was static as he tried to find the location of the blast. "DAMN!" He cursed with the bitter realization that Titan's Tower had been hit and hit _hard._

"What the hell _happened_?" He asked trying to focus his frustration on something, anything. "Where'd we get hit?" Turning to the other two he snarled and made a break for the exit, "Get the lead out you two! We need to find Raven and Starfire and make sure they're okay."

"Cyborg!" Starfire's exclaimed beating him to the punch before he could send out a rescue party. "Are you all uninjured?" The alien asked floating into the room. Besides some small injuries and a fresh coat of white dust the girl didn't seem too worse for wear.

"I think we'll live, if that's what you mean." Beast Boy muttered as he continued to dust himself off.

"What are you doing just standing around?" A more irritated than usual monotone asked. "We're under attack and I don't think you need to guess from who." Raven's voice muttered as she materialized, her face and clothes in the same state as everyone else's.

"You've been outside?" Beast Boy asked concerned."Who's stupid enough to attack Titan's Tower?"

"_Slade_." Raven spit as if that world contained enough malice to strike someone dead. "He has an army of robots just outside the main frame."

"Is Robin-" Starfire began before Raven cut her off with mild ferocity.

"Except for his bots he looks like he's alone. All they're doing now is waiting." The pale girl's eyes narrowing as she breathed, "Even alone, Slade's more dangerous than usual this time. Batman never mentioned that that pill wasn't the only thing he took when he visited Lex Luthor. The newest laser cannons and flash bomb technology from Lexcorp are waiting for us just outside."

"Raven, how bad was the damage to the Tower?" Cyborg asked trying to keep his calm as the dark empath spoke.

Biting back a sigh Raven explained, "One of the support beams is destroyed and the basement level has been completely flooded. If we take another hit like the first one Titan's Tower is going to collapse into the ocean."

"Then we need to get out of here before they reload." Beast Boy exclaimed, "Or the whole Tower's going to collapse on our heads!"

"No way!" Cyborg snapped, "We're not abandoning the Tower because of a couple of explosives. Slade's attacked us before, this time's no different."

"Yeah, except this time he came with laser cannons and flash grenades!" BB snapped trying to force his logic on his friend.

Grumbling profanities under his breath Cyborg fought with the keyboard to get the screens up and running. "We'll be _fine_." He said forcefully, his voice dangerously low. "But I need you guys to go outside and buy me some time. If I can get the systems up and running again I can activate the rest of our defenses."

"I don't understand." Beast Boy stammered, "Batman said Robin would be half way to Gotham by now. Why would they attack us now? Aren't _WE _supposed to be ambushing _THEM?" _Arms flailing he shrieked, "What happened?"

"You can ask Slade about that later or else there won't be a Tower left to protect." Raven muttered trying to hide the disdain in her voice as she disappeared into the wall.

-Titan's Tower-

(Main Entrance)

Outside the wind was strangely silent despite the obvious chill in the air and the breeze that instantly prickled the skin. It was as if the earth was hushed, recoiled, as if some unknown evil had taken a hold of the world and strangled the love out of it.

No one moved.

Across the sea of black and orange, Slade was crouched very patiently on one of the large cannons. Surrounding them the Titan's little island was covered in the thick, steel clad bodies of Slade's army. A thousand cold unfeeling eyes gazed at the four heroes; their robotic stare waiting for the slightest movement of their leader and the command to attack.

But Slade didn't give it.

"What do you want Slade?" Raven asked feeling rage burn in her insides as she stared at his flaccid almost mockingly calm composure.

"I see time has done little to temper your manners, my dear." Slade said with a smile putting his hands on his chin as he spoke. "But I never held that against you. Tonight however, I'm here to see Joey. After all he and I did make a bargain." With a single flick of his hand a command was silently issued and like clockwork a spot light flickered on. Hanging in chains across the chest of one of the cannons on the right was a sedated little girl.

_Rose!_

Jericho's mouth opened but the wind to put that thought into words remained broken in his chest. Still, even if he couldn't call her name he felt joy and worry and relief crash into his body like waves. For the first time in days he could breathe again.

She was safe.

She was alive.

Breaking out of formation Joey ran to the far edges of the circle of robots his hand extended towards the sleeping child that was dangling just inches out of reach.

"Not just yet, Joey." Slade said bringing the boy out of his joy. Eyes twinkling with satisfaction the man breathed, "This is only half the reason for our little visit. And I'm not the only one here that wanted to thank you for your services."

"Just let the kid go, Slade!" Beast Boy exclaimed in Jericho's place, "What kind of a coward hides behind a little girl? You have your army, what do you need a hostage for?"

"Which one?" A second, all too familiar voice asked. "Technically we have more than one hostage."

Coming out of the darkness the smile on Robin's face alone managed to drain the feeling out of everyone's heart. The silver glint of his uniform caught in the moonlight was the only thing to tear them away from the insane, glowing burn of his eyes as Robin stepped forward. His voice dripping with false compassion the boy looked at Beast Boy, "But since you asked so nicely, Beast Boy. Here. I'll let you have one of mine." Just like that a second body was brought forward and thrown at the Titan's feet.

It was there that the last sliver of hope and the memory of who Robin once was seemed to vanish as the mangled heap of flesh and steel fell at Starfire's feet making only a small thud.

His red curls soaked in blood and sweat, the boy was barely breathing as his life seemed to ebb out of him with every gash and cut on his tattered body. Biting back a rushed choke of horror the alien girl found the crippled boy's name lodged in her throat as she rushed to him. "FLASH!" Was all she could manage as she picked him off the ground and held him to her.

Finding strength from a place no one could fathom Flash stirred ever so slightly.

His eyes opened and he managed a small, broken smile his voice as torn and battered as the rest of him.

"... hi Red..."

She could see the chipped teeth and blood even without him opening his mouth as he continued to grin. If it wasn't for his healing powers, he would have been long dead. The head trauma, the broken bones, the cuts and gashes.

His precious legs were nothing more than pink flesh tattered with rusted metal.

Trying to find words from lips so swollen he could barely open them KF's eyes were milky and distant, as he clung onto conciousness with everything he had. "Sorry... I was late..."

Cradling her friend Starfire failed to bite back the angry tears.

Even like this when he couldn't even stand he had to be so prideful, so cocky.

Even when he was hurting this badly.

She would never understand earth boys and their ego.

"What do you think, Jericho?" Slade asked ignoring the beautiful alien girl as she clung onto her fallen comrade. Instead he stared at his creation and breathed,"Without love or remorse, you helped me make the perfect apprentice. The perfect killer. Cold and calculating and untouched by the spoils of human emotion. What do you think of the improvement we've made on your little friend?"

Silently Robin stared ahead to meet his friends' eyes. He smiled and despite Slade's praise it didn't seem he was focusing on what the villain had to gloat about. Robin almost seemed amused by something just out of their reach.

"He left you a child and I've made him a god." Slade mused turning to the blond hair boy still reaching for his sister, "And to think I couldn't have done any of this without _you_."

Stepping forward Jericho eyes burned with so much hate they were almost on fire. Shaking with contempt the blond boy clenched his fists as the only outlet for his rage now that his voice remained broken.

"_Why_ Robin?" Beast Boy asked trying to find the strength to stand at this point. "He... we... we're your _friends_."

Robin paused for a moment idly glancing at the girl on the floor who was fighting a losing battle with her tears. Then he looked back up to the changeling who trying to find his soul somewhere from within his dead heart.

The empath who was struggling with her rage and Joey who was struggling with his guilt.

Despite everything he found himself still caring. It was unfortunate that he had to hurt them.

And for that a split second the insane glow of his ungodly blue eyes almost vanished. "We're friends." Robin said after a few moments of silence.

Then he smiled at them.

It was a smile so gentle, so full of complete encompassing emotion the boy almost seemed to glow.

"No matter what happens, Beast Boy we'll always be friends."

It was a smile that chilled the Titans to their bones because _their_ Robin would never smile like.

Raising his arm the red glow of a laser cannon charged from its spot on his suit.

"But that doesn't really change _anything_."

To be continued...


	23. The Judas Kiss

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 23: The Judas Kiss

-Titans Tower-

Cyborg had known his share of bad days. At the moment though he was finding it hard to remember ones much worse than this. One more hit to the tower's support frame and the whole place was history. As he worked he could hear the building creak and moan as if it was in pain, the floorboards and ceiling fixtures shaking every so often. "I know baby, I know." He said quietly, "I'm working on it." Using one of the USB drives in his index finger he tried to connect with the one working video camera left, seeing if there was someway to get the monitor back up and running. He needed to get a face on the horrible damage outside if he was ever going to know how to fix it. Not to mention the noises that were seeping out of the already cracked walls. It was like World War III.

But what was worse than the explosions, the ripping sounds of laser cannons and the occasional roar of what was probably a dinosaur was the silence in between. Having to listen to the bouts of nothing when he couldn't hear Starfire's battle cry or Beast Boy's dumb animal noises was killing him. If they were in trouble, if they needed him he was out of reach.

"If anything happens to them..." He muttered to himself surprised by the cold swell of emotion that flushed up inside of him. Unable to finish his threat aloud the boy moved in silence back towards the broken electronics around him. "You guys better be alright." Was all he could seethe.

-Outside Titan's Tower-

Emotions cripple.

They petrify and disarm better than any weapon ever could.

And it made things that much easier to destroy.

The laser beam landed just inches from Beast Boy's feet which was just as Robin planned. By purposely missing him Robin knew the power behind that shot was strong enough to do his dirty work without him even having to throw a punch.

It succeeded beautifully, since Beast Boy's heart weighed the rest of him down slowing his reaction time. He didn't have time to think let alone move before the ground was shattered beneath him and he was sent reeling backwards from the force.

This was so easy Robin didn't even have to try.

And so that first shot had been like a flare going off at the start of a race. In a matter of seconds the Slade Bots had come down on Titans Tower with the fury of hell as they rampaged to the broken building in a deadly march towards the center.

"Don't even think about it Slade!" Raven exclaimed as she bolted towards the entrance to stop him and the oncoming horde from getting any close to their home. One more hit with the cannon, even one stupid robot thrown in the wrong place and the Tower would sink to the bottom of the ocean. Raven would not lose the only place she had ever called home anymore than she would lose the Titan who still working inside its broken frame.

Using the chaos as a distraction Jericho had linked eyes with the first Slade Bot he could manage. All at once he felt everything and nothing as his body faded away and his soul entered the metallic creature's body. Within seconds he had cleared the distance between the cannon cylinder using the other robots as step ladders. The harsh metal bands that had been used to tie the sleeping child to its base were no match for a few well placed lasers and in a matter of minutes Rose was in his arms. Just like that his baby sister was there, actually within his reach for once in his wretched life.

If his lips had not been made of metal Joey knew they would have been quivering. He could not feel her warmth through iron hands nor could his voice say the name he had waited half his life to call out to. Even in his arms she did not stir or move, fated to be asleep just as she had been every other time they had ever been allowed to meet. Closing his eyes Joey gently hugged the sleeping girl through his fake body.

He didn't care right now.

At least she was real.

Meanwhile...

Beast Boy didn't have time to watch someone else's fight.

He had barely hit the ground with a sickening thud before Robin's steel boot connected with the changeling's chest, knocking out whatever wind was left in smaller boy's lungs. The green teenager underneath his feet let a ragged gag as he fought the urge to vomit or worse faint.

Then the bo-staff came down.

The metal bar hit him sideways connecting with insides and he immediately heard a crunching noise. Unable to scream, unable to move all Beast Boy could do was wheeze as he tried to move a shaking hand to the wound. His vision blackening the younger boy fought with his own body as the world started to blur and dance. He refused to go down just like that.

"That doesn't sound too good, BB." Robin sneered from above him pressing his foot down just to make sure the sound he was hearing was correct, "I think you might have broken a rib there."

Teeth clenched Beast Boy felt cold rage boil inside him when he realized this was just a game to Robin. The crinkle in his nose and the upturned grin were a glaring invitation as if he was simply asking them to play. Beast Boy was on his own in this one, no one could back him up right now. Slade and Raven's blurry figures were just outside of his field of vision and Jericho was lost somewhere within the endless sea of black and orange. "I never thought I'd say it," Beast Boy rasped letting his anger silence whatever indecision he might have left as he realized he had to be one to stop Robin. "But I really miss it when you were too serious all the time."

With that his body began to shift under Robin's weight his teeth and arms growing longer, while his legs shortened and every inch of his body thickened with muscle and hair. The gorilla that stood in Best Boy's place snarled using one hand to push himself off the ground while the other wrapped its thick palm around Robin's ankle. Clenching his eyes along with his fist Beast Boy let out inaudible choke as his hand tightened into a death grip around Robin's small leg.

The large ape vaulted the older boy off the ground, quickly propelling him towards one of the trees.

This was all Beast Boy could do for Robin right now.

Even if he had to hurt him, to break him, to leave him ragged and bloody it was the only way they could save him.

He knew that. Hurting his friend was the only way to protect him and the others. So why did his insides hurt so badly he felt as though he'd split in two?

"Even when we have to be enemies, you're still too nice BB." Robin said softly right before he connected with the trunk. Used to taking hits Robin pushed off the small oak, making sure that most of the blow was absorbed through the wood and not his body.

Still even he couldn't completely disarm the force that came from Beast Boy's animal form.

Flinching Robin stifled a choke and knew that one had hurt more than he could let on.

For a small moment neither one of them moved, each strangely trapped by the other.

"You trust people, BB. Which is why this must be so hard." Robin muttered. He sounded so much like his old self that Beast Boy's grip loosened almost involuntarily.

It wasn't exactly a compliment.

While Robin never really flattered people, it was full of that same quiet pride that the leader of Titan's had always had for them.

Smiling despite the bad situation he had found himself in Robin beamed, "But then that's just one of the things I really like about you."

That moment of normalcy was short lived.

In a instant Robin curved his body backwards and managed to tuck underneath the huge arm that was holding him. A flash of silver was followed by Beast Boy's startled grunt as a sharp stinging pain went through his arm.

It was then he realized Robin had just shot him full of the contents of the strange silver syringe clutched in the boy's fist.

"I hope you don't ever change, Beast Boy." The Teen Wonder said wistfully his eyes still full of everything Beast Boy remembered he had been. And then just like, the mask dropped and those insane blue eyes choked out whatever ghost of Robin had been there. Burning with sick satisfaction Robin grinned, "You just make it too easy when you're this _weak_."

With his opponent distracted Robin used that moment to counter attack. Using the tree as a springboard and his staff as a pole jump Robin raised his body off the ground and powered the momentum into a screw driver kick. Slamming down on the gorilla's thumb it wasn't enough to break any bones on such a large animal but the force immediately wedged the changeling's hand open.

Free from his grip the older boy landed gracefully back onto the dirt and casually began dusting himself off.

Even without orders from Robin or their master a circle of Slade Bots had begun to inch closer and closer to the two, blocking any means for Beast Boy to escape.

Reverting back to his original form Beat Boy nursed his arm. Paranoid and biting back pain now that his skeletal system returned to normal, Beast Boy gingerly looked at the small tear on his skin where the syringe had gone in. "What did you just shoot me with?" He asked part horrified part enraged as he spat the words at his former leader.

Robin only shrugged, "What do you think I shot you with?"

Beast Boy wanted to snarl back a saucy remark but his vision weaved as the drug already started to take effect. Frizzling the changeling tried not to let Robin's disgustingly calm face or the drug effect him, despite the horrible feeling running up his arm.

It tingled and hurt almost in the same way your body ached when you're foot fell asleep. Something was crawling through his bloodstream and making its way through his body at an alarming speed. Paling Beast Boy remembered what Batman had explained to him about CP9 and the effects it had on the circulatory system.

"You wouldn't..." He stammered shaking his head in disbelief as it all seemed to click.

Robin was crazy, Robin was evil but he wouldn't.

He couldn't possibly...!

"D-did you really just shoot me with that computerized plague thing?" Beast Boy barely managed to ask.

Smiling darkly Robin took a step forward. In a simple, mocking round of applause Robin commended him for putting all the pieces of the puzzle together.

"Finally Beast Boy." He said with a final clap, "You heroes are finally starting to ask the right questions."

Meanwhile…

Past the raging hum of the laser cannons that loomed ever closer to what little was left of Titan's Tower, Starfire could only stare at the bloody battles going on at both her left and her right.

"Raven," She found herself whisper without even realizing she had spoken.

The dark haired empath had managed to wedge herself in between the Titan's Tower and the incoming horde, throwing each wave of Slade's army back. Ocean waves crashed around them along with the sparks of short circuiting robots and metal parts that had begun to clog their beach with robotic corpses. But while the battle was horrible to watch, and the ferocity of the pale teenagers onslaught startling it was the look on Raven's face that made Starfire's blood run cold.

Like a monster from some nightmare, Raven's other eyes had opened from the astral plane and a look of pure rage was etched on her once lovely features. The dark energy around Raven was enormous swallowing up the earth and sky like a blanket, twisting almost as if it too had a will. The sight made a single word ring through Starfire's mind.

_Demon._

How Starfire wanted to call out to her, to do anything to curb that anger and rage. Because even though Raven was snarling and fighting Slade with the fury of what was surely hell inside, Starfire knew that on the inside she was also probably crying. Her friend hated to rely on that darker part of herself.

But for her friends and for Titans Tower, she would be a demon if she had to be.

Shaking in frustration all the beautiful alien could do was watch as she held Kid Flash's broken body. The boy in her arms was so battered she couldn't bring herself to let go of him despite how much she wanted to aid her friends. To take him into the Tower when the structure was that unstable was a chance she couldn't risk nor were there any spots here where he would be safe. For now all she could do was be his wall from the oncoming army. Watching as Robin's laser cannon tore through the rest of the tree lines she could see that Beast Boy was losing the fight. Even from the distance between them she could see dirt and blood caked all over the green boy's small frame. Robin was not giving him an inch and the tips of his bo-staff were already thick with red splotches. "Robin…" She uttered as hot tears stung at her eyes.

"Can you not see how much our friends are all hurting, Robin?" The girl asked angrily clenching her teeth as spat, "Have you really gone so far away you cannot hear us anymore?"

"_It's not like last time, Star. He's not our Robin anymore."_ Cyborg's voice from so many days earlier seemed to remind her.

"Red… l-listen to me…" Flash quivered from within her arms, his hand tightening around her shoulder. He had lost so much blood that even though his eyes were open she could tell he could no longer really see her.

If he wasn't pretty sure he was about to pass out Kid Flash would have found the situation amusing if not downright pleasant. His head was pressed against her shoulder and frankly there were worst places to be than in the arms of a beautiful woman. Too bad the circumstances didn't really let him enjoy it.

Flash stammered, "Robin… he shot me full of some… k-kind of serum." Weakly the boy tried to lift his chin just enough to see her face; he could barely manage even that. His whole body felt like sand, it was so heavy and immobile and completely out of his control.

"If it's the stuff… the stuff that did this to him…" Flash tried to continue as he let out a miserable choke. He was fighting his body with ever ounce of willpower he had but he was losing the fight. "He has... n-needles or something. He has… you… have..."

He trembled like a little bird as he barely managed to whisper, "... t-to watch out…"

And just like that the red haired boy went limp in her arms.

Squinting her eyes Starfire looked back at Robin and Beast Boy.

"Needles?" She repeated. Flash had fought with everything he had left just to stay conscious long enough to warn her. She would not waste his efforts.

But what did it mean?

Glancing at her friends' disfigured legs she wondered if the wretched jagged points embedded in his flesh were what he was trying to warm her about or if it was something more.

Before she had time to ponder it further a looming shadow crossed over her frame.

Surprise and worry had distracted for a moment of the cruel fact they were in a war zone. But she was the type that was not taken by surprise for long.

Eyes bolting upward she retched an arm free of its position on Flash her palms glowing as she aimed for a Slade Bot that stood directly above her.

"Starfire wait!" The electronic voice from the bot exclaimed as the robot managed to wave a hand in a frantic and very un-henchman attempt to stop her from blowing him up. It was all the more strange as the thing was trying to do this while it juggled a sleeping girl in one arm.

"Jericho!" Starfire cried her powers fading as she immediately recognized him. "Are you unharmed?"

"I'm fine." Joey said quickly kneeling down beside her, "In this disguise the robots are completely ignoring me. I don't even have to try to avoid them." Cradling the little girl in his arms he gently pushed her towards his friend."Star, I need to you to watch Rose." He explained.

"I have to help Beast Boy," Jericho said trying his gaze towards their fight, "Robin's got him running scared for some reason." His robotic arm gently clasping Starfire's shoulder Jericho demanded, "So go hide somewhere safe, Star."

"What about you?" Starfire asked.

"I... helped do this to Robin." Jericho said quietly the emotion in those words a little odd to hear from a electronic voice. "So now I have to help fix it." From within those red mechanical eyes Starfire could see Joey smiling. "I'll bring him back somehow, Star. I promise. We'll all go home together this time. So please watch after my little sister for me." He asked.

"Joey I..." Starefire began but whatever she wanted to say died on her lips.

The boy gave her a single wave before she could try to talk him out of it. And in a matter of seconds the robot he was possessing disappeared into the next wave of minions.

Holding the little girl close Starfire bit back a sigh. She did not like being forced to play the role of waiting damsel but Joey's honest plead had been enough to stifle her pride if only a little. So she would protect her friends and wait then.

For now at least.

Staring at the little girl asleep against Kid Flash's chest she chuckled at the seeing the drastic change in the normally shy and timid boy Joey normally was, "Your brother is very different when he is protecting his little sister." She mused to sleeping child.

"!"

Letting out a choke the alien was suddenly blindsided as a small white hand caught her wrist and sharp pain struck her arm. Staring down at her arm Starfire could barely make out a flash of curls before a strange silver liquid was shot into the girl's veins.

Raising her head up so green eyes met green eyes the child in her arms smiled darkly.

"But he doesn't have to protect me from the bad guys over there, silly." Rose said throwing the empty syringe to the ground as she got to her feet.

Eyes widening Starfire bit back surprise and pain as her arm burned. The child seemed to enjoy Starfire's look of utter confusion and misery.

Putting her hands to her face the girl giggled,"You see, I'm on _their_ side. So don't need any protection from people like you." Spinning in a circle as if she was playing a ring around the rosie the child made a full turn before she waggled a finger and in a song like voice explained.

"And Robin's gonna make sure none of you Titans get away."

To be continued...


	24. Front Seat to the End of the World

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 24: Front Seat to the End of the World

-Abandoned Factory-

(12 hours prior to the attack on Titans Tower...)

_Two for flinching._

Years of being tossed around in the foster care system had turned that child's rhyme into a unspoken law to live by. Because most endings for orphans weren't the stuff of celluloid and Oliver Twist. The colder, darker reality that awaited most children was years in a bitter institution followed with work programs and a life that was less than mediocre. It was better to quickly find ways to escape from your emotions lest you be swallowed by them and the older a ward of the state was the more bitter they became. Life was a strange mix between a prison and a beauty pageant but it was no secret time was the enemy. And younger kids learned fast to avoid the fists and wrath of their older peers. For misery loved company and nothing could hone someone's fighting skills like despair. Every orphan out of diapers could tell you how cheap things like pride and hope were in the face of pain and humiliation. It was better to keep your nose to the ground, and to bleed into the woodwork than risk being noticed. You could develop self esteem _after_ you were adopted.

So Rose had stayed perfectly still as Robin shot her full of that burning liquid that smelled of paint thinner and stung her arm like needles. The girl pretended to sleep long after the tranquilizer had run off or the black out from Robin's temper had passed. She didn't even bat an eyelash as he revealed his horrible plan to kill everyone to the doctor he had kidnapped. So she lay like a little doll knowing all too well it was better to wait then risk another incident with him.

Her throat still had bruises from the last time.

_Because it was two for flinching._

But she wasn't fooling anyone but herself. Robin hadn't spent most of his childhood being the partner to the world's greatest detective only to be faked out by a little girl. Still she was downright Oscar worthy, he had to admit.

But his amusement was short lived.

"Eh. What's up, Doc?" The Joker sneered materializing from the hallway like some phantom from a horror movie. He was shaking a invisible carrot as he imitated the rabbit that made that stick famous but only successfully managed to make himself incredibly creepy. Even though the clown's voice was spot on Robin figured using a pop culture reference to terrify someone was right up the Joker's alley.

"Did you want something?" Robin asked as he locked the door to the storage room Leslie was being held in. Even now Doctor Thompkins' quiet sobs could still be heard from behind the thick steel door as the two rouges passed the stairs.

"Just wanted to bathe in the pleasure of your company." The Joker answered before pausing to listen to the old woman's heaving cries. "Jeez, you really did a number on that old bat." The madman scoffed. "You know there _is _a art to this business, bucko. Tear at them too quickly and they break before the fun starts." The crime prince of Gotham goated as he dramatically tsk-tsked.

"Can you save it, clown?" Robin said mildly frustrated. "I get enough lectures from Slade without you riding my methods too."

Above him Joker's red lips twisted into something unreadable as Robin seemed to pout. Reaching over and tugging on the boy's uniform the madman almost felt sympathy for the kid. "Nope. Can't say I envy you having all these overbearing old men chase your tights around. And take it from someone with his foot in showbiz." Joker exclaimed pointing a finger to heavens, "The downside of being in the spot light all the time means constantly walking around with a army of critics up your ass." Fingering his chin he grinned, "Frankly old Uncle Joker doesn't know how you handle it. Ditching one overprotective father only to have another one line up to take his place. But then that's probably part of the joke to you, isn't it kid?" Leaning over the tall lanky man squeezed the boy's shoulder and mused,"You're pretty twisted under all that baby fat, Robbie Pooh. And here people say _I'm _crazy."

Taking a deep breath Robin raised an eyebrow. "Shouldn't you and your henchwench be halfway to Gotham by now?"

"Now, now. You know Bat's better than that. He'd wait till hell froze over if I gave him a time and a place." Joker drawled. "Don't forget there's a certain rhythm to these things. I cause trouble; he shows up. We have some laughs and the game starts all over." Grinning ear to ear he waved, "Besides if this really is the last time justice is going to be served I'm all about service with a smile! I want to savor it."

"Yeah well give Batman my regards." Robin said matter of factly as they parted ways at the end of the hall. Hiking the sleeping girl up so his shoulder wouldn't fall asleep the boy added, "It's too bad you get to be the one to go to Gotham instead of me."

Saluting him Joker's grin only got wider, "Well chin up, short pants. There's always next time." Correcting himself he rubbed his chin, "Hmm, well scratch that, maybe there won't be. But hey! The Titans are a swell consolation prize. So try to have _some _fun in Jump City. That town's in need of a good enema." With that the Clown Prince of Gotham disapeared down the stairs his purple suit and ghost white skin vanishing around a corner.

Watching him leave Robin couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. For a few minutes he had been afraid that the Joker had overheard what he had shared with Leslie.

But he was giving the clown way too much credit.

Both Slade and the Joker had trouble looking past their own egos.

And that flaw was going to be the death of them one of these days.

Smiling darkly Robin's nose crinkled ever so slightly. One of these days someday soon.

Now that he was alone again Robin could get back to the task at hand. Carrying the sleeping child over his shoulder like a father would as he put his little princess to bed the boy's smile only got wider with time. Part of it was because of the things to come and the other the simple fact he couldn't hide how cute he thought she was.

Especially when she was terrified of him.

Once they were out of the cellar and back up in the main hall he gently leaned over and brushed a piece of white hair out of her ear. "You big faker." He whispered.

It was silent only for a second before the small girl's arms wrapped around his neck. Burying her face in the nape under his chin so she wouldn't have to look at him Rose took a deep breath before she asked, "So you knew huh?"

Staring at the black encompassing darkness as they continued down the stairs she murmured, "I should have known I couldn't fool you."

Chuckling good naturedly Robin playfully stroked her hair, "Ah don't take it personally. It just took years of practice to get to be as creepy as me."

"These days it doesn't take much for you to be creepy. You made that poor lady cry, Robin." Rose muttered trying to take the heat off herself and put it on the doctor instead. "Did you really mean what you said back there?"

"Come on Rose. Four hours ago you caught me with my hand in the cookie jar and spilled the beans on my evil plan. So I think you know the answer to that by now." Robin replied gently cuffing her cheek before sliding his fingers down to trace the large black bruises on her throat. There was something in his eyes that Rose couldn't place as he added, "Honestly though I'm surprised you're still talking to me. After all I did try to kill you."

Glancing at him the little girl's eyes blurred with tears and she recoiled from his touch.

He was teasing her right now.

Grinning he continued to take small pleasure in her misery and added, "Do all orphans take abuse as well as you or does this just mean we're still friends?"

"Stupid!" The girl cried striking him across the face with all strength she could muster. "Retard! Dummy!" But the tears in her eyes and the sadness in her voice didn't match the fierceness in her small hands.

"Dummy! Dummy! Dummy!"

She chanted pounding her little white fists into his chest.

"I hate you! I hate you! You're cruel! You're evil! You're worse than Mr. Slade and Mr. Joker combined!

He didn't stop her as she continued to strike him.

"Dummy... you stupid dummy." The child sobbed latching onto his shirt. "I don't know why I still love you."

Robin had been waiting for that.

If she could find the heart to love something as monstrous as he was then she really was as crazy as the rest of them.

Because no matter how hard he tried to push her away she still came back for more.

And even though his frozen heart couldn't return her feelings he found it suddenly hard to tease her.

It felt just like that time back in the alley.

Despite all the evil he had done to her, she still found the strength to care.

And his heart began to hurt in that place he couldn't reach again.

His silence unnerved her but she continued to strike him with everything she had even though she knew he could snap her neck with little to no effort. At any other time he might have considered it. But instead he simply caught her fist.

"That's enough Rose." He said callously staring hard at the floor. It was his turn now to find anywhere else to look but her eyes.

"You sure can act stupid for a boy genius, Robin." The child said coldly. "Stop acting like you're so tough. I may not be as smart as you but you can't fool me anymore. I know everything now. If you don't like it, fine then. You can kill me. But stop treating me like I'm a idiot."

Silence.

But it was that silence that confirmed everything.

And her fear and misery was replaced with something greater.

"So it's really true then." The little girl whispered searching his face for anything. Any sign that her suspicion was false and that everything she believed would come crumbling down.

She couldn't find it.

"It doesn't change anything whether it's true or not." Robin replied meeting her gaze. "The plan proceeds in two days just as it always would. Your _opinion_ doesn't alter that."

Letting out a sigh of relief the child slowly gave him a smile. "No," She said quietly. "I guess it doesn't. Even if I wanted it to, I can't stop you." Her lips pursing she took his face in her hands just as she had done the first time they had met, "But at least now I know. So stop trying to save me ok?"

It was almost funny.

"Save you?" Robin laughed. "Is that what you _still_ think I'm doing?" His voice hardening he shook his head. "For someone who hates fairy tales you sure like to cling to your fantasies."

Not answering him Rose just continued to hug him, latching onto him so hard his breath was almost taken away.

It really was just like that time in the alley.

And there really was something about her blind devotion to his dead humanity that made him powerless sometimes.

Despite himself he found his hands moving to return her embrace.

"You really _will_ hate me in the end, kid. If you were smart you'd hate me now." Robin said quietly. It wasn't remorse that caused him to say that, he no longer knew what that felt like. It simply felt like the right thing to say. He was her monster and any hope she clung to that he was still human was a child's delusion. But he couldn't lie to her anymore. "But sooner or later you'll feel it. That's one thing I can promise you."

"Maybe." Rose replied as the tears continued to fall.

"So far you've been right about everything else." She agreed. "But even if I hate you I'll still stay with you. I said I would, remember?"

Closing her eyes she swore she'd follow that promise through to the end.

She would stay by his side until the devil himself came to collect both of their ugly souls.

Her precious Kay.

"Do what you want, kid." Robin murmured quietly.

-Titans Tower-

(The Present)

Surprise bit at Starfire almost as much as the stabbing pain that ran down her arm. Staring down in horror at the broken syringe on the floor she didn't dare ask what she had just been pumped full of. Flash's warning tore through her mind so she already had a fair guess. But it was the reasoning behind it that she just couldn't wrap her head around. "I... do not understand." She choked to the little girl as she got to her feet and backed away slowly placing pressure on the small wound in a attempt to stop the poison from spreading.

This girl was so small, so young.

Barely old enough to tie her shoes.

So why did her eyes look so old, so full of hate and malice towards a world she wasn't even young enough to understand.

Why did this little girl's eyes have to look as dead as his?

The beautiful alien tried to stable herself as the horrible drug ravaged her body. Her vision was already failing and a sick nauseas pulse radiated through her stomach. Like Beast Boy she too was already losing the battle to the heavy sedative.

"Please. You must tell me why." Starfire stammered her voice dripping with anger before it failed her completely.

_Oh Joey._ She thought with tears in her eyes.

They both knew what Jericho had risked for this child, what he had forced himself to become for her sake.

Unable to say what she really wanted Starfire asked again, "Why Rose?"

_Why hadn't she waited for him? _

_Why... hadn't Robin waited for them?_

"Why?" Rose repeated coldly putting a hand on her small waist. "You can ask me something like that when you heroes can't even save yourselves?"

"But he-" Starfire stammered as her body got harder and harder to control. Hitting the cold ground with a heavy thud the alien fought to keep her eyes open.

"He what?" The child above her asked before she placed a well delivered kick to the older girl's stomach. "Oh I see." She reasoned twirling a lock of her white hair in her fingers, "You thought I was just supposed to wait for my stupid brother to come and rescue me so he could carry me off into the sunset." Eyes burning she spat, "Into the sunset and straight back to the orphanage's front door. Well anything I owed him was paid in full the day he left me to rot!" Grabbing the chains that Jericho had clumsily discarded next to her after he had freed Rose, the child clenched the broken metal in her fist and was about to swing it down on the sedated hero's head. "You say he was coming to save me because he loved me, how nice. Well if he loved me so much why did he leave me all alone?"

"Because... he simply wanted... what was best for you." Starfire tried to explain as she raised her head off the floor. "He wished for you to have a normal life, a life that he could not give you." Blanching she whispered, "It was that love that made your happiness more important to him than his own."

"Well isn't that sweet." Rose said with false compassion. "That changes everything." Putting a hand to her forehead she pretended to swoon, "Gee, now that I've seen the error of my ways I'll just turn myself in and beg for forgiveness. Why maybe this will change my whole outlook on life!" Scoffing the child snarled, "Sorry to disappoint you but I'm making my own decisions now. And the first thing I'm going to do is cut the last remaining ties I have with my dear brother." Raising her hand to strike the little girl smiled, "So I think I'll start with you-"

But the chain never connected with it's target.

Instead a firm hand caught it midswing and rendered it harmless.

"Now, now. That's enough Rose." A soft familiar voice scolded.

Glancing up Starfire's vision danced and waved too much to make out his face but she knew that voice anywhere.

"Let's not act like crazy people." Robin said throwing the chain to the ground. "At least not yet." He smirked glancing down at the fallen alien. "Titan's Tower is ours. We have what we want. Besides," He added bending down to give Star the final blow himself. "That is no way to treat one of my old friends."

White pain flooded Starfire's neck as a pressure point was hit below her jugular. She could barely make out her former friend's blue eyes as they burned like lantern light before she was finally swallowed up by the darkness.

"You see Rose," Robin explained as he stroked the alien's crimson hair. "You have to be careful with them. After all my friends mean the world to me. I'd hate for anything bad to happen to them."

"Gosh I'm sorry Robin. I understand." Rose replied flashing him her sweetest smile and childishly grabbing his hand. In the background Slade and his army had backed Raven into a corner. In a few seconds the girl would be buried under a sea of metal corpses and with her out of the way they'd have easy access to Titan's Tower.

Glancing at fallen bodies of the three Titans at their feet Rose made sure she got it right. "After all, it's only natural you want to give them a front row seat to the end of the world." Crossing her heart she added, "So I'll be careful from now on."

"That's my girl." Robin said gently ruffling her hair.

To be continued...


	25. Titans

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 25: Titans

-Titan's Tower-

_Once upon a time five misfits found each other as they wandered in a dark sea of loneliness. _

_Each one carried scars of sacrifice, pain and regret for a normal life that would never be theirs. _

_Victor Stone had once been an athlete few could rival. A boy with such talent and charisma that greatness was thrown on his shoulders almost overnight. But it only took a instant to change all that. And in that moment he lost his mother, his humanity and all his respect for his father as the explosions from the laboratory erased his normal life forever. When he awoke all he had left of the world he had known was the cold calculating gaze of a father who blamed him for his mother's dead and a new body more horrible than any retelling of Frankenstein could ever offer. From that moment on the boy encountered only fear and hatred from the world that had once expected so much from him. Confused and alone he ran away from the spotlight he had once spent so much time in and shied away from civilization, secretly afraid that his new robotic body had somehow corrupted his human soul._

_Garfield Logan had contracted a rare disease while in the bowels of the African wilderness and the cure to save his life came at a heavy cost. It forever mutated him and ultimately led to the death of both of his parents. And not all adoption stories had a happy ending, as was his case. His new guardian cared more about his trust fund then the well being of a green mutated freak that could morph into animals. Running away at the first chance he got the boy joined the Doom Patrol and with them found in them the family he had missed so desperately. But as a child he was always a liability to the team of super heroes, someone to protect instead of depend on and eventually his need to prove himself outweighed the gratitude he had for the people who had taken him in. Despite their kindness the boy ached with the loneliness and yearning to find people his own age, friends he could relate to but until now had never had._

_Raven was the bastard daughter of a human and demon, accused from the first moment out of womb of being a creature of evil. For it was her destiny to one day destroy the world and be the dark lord Trigon's second coming. Despite the monstrous curse that was to be her fate she found understanding in the Monks of Azar who raised her and taught to control her demon heritage. For a short time the young woman knew happiness until the day Trigon destroyed that world and she was thrust back down to earth. But while the girl had learned to heal by absorbing others' pain and how to suppress her emotions she was naive to greatest power of all: love._

_Princess Koriand'r of the planet Tamaran was given up to slavery in order to keep her world free. Stripped of her powers, her title and the warmth of everything she had once loved she was told to abandon the thing called hope. Escaping captivity she found herself on Earth where against all odds four strangers released her from her bonds and gave her back everything she had once lost without asking for anything in return save her friendship._

_Once upon a time a boy in a mask had reached his hand out to the four of them and asked them to help him change the world. _

_Because he too had a past full of adversity and sadness. _

_The four were unsure at first. After all no one had ever believed in them like this before. _

_To most they were the things deemed freaks and monsters.  
_

_Being normal would forever be a dream, a goal just always out of reach. _

_But the boy only smiled his serious smile and told them they were fine the way they were. Proudly he proclaimed to the heavens that they were like Titans, the ancient Greek gods who had once watched over the world of man. He told them they didn't need to be like everyone else in order to be heroes. The boy gave the four misfits of society the courage to take on new lives different from the ones they once had. So they became icons, they became things bigger than the status quo. _

_All because the boy in the mask had believed in them, always assuring them that being different didn't matter if they could still help people. Time and time again it had been the boy in the mask who told them they were great, that they were worthwhile._

_That they were people he would be proud to call friends. _

_And before they knew it three years of golden happiness passed. The five became friends, teammates, and a family. Sometimes they fought, sometimes they were unable to understand one another, and sometimes the words they really wanted to say got lost in awkward silence or misunderstandings. __Because even in the worst of times the Titans stood as one, knowing that for the first time in their lives... they were no longer alone._

_After all in a empty sea of loneliness five misfits had been able to find one another._

_ And no matter how scary the darkness was, the boy in the mask always seemed to be holding out his hand for theirs._

_He had never once given up on them.  
_

_So she had to believe that he was still there, that if__ she__ tried hard enough she could still knot his fingers in hers._

_No matter how out of reach he seemed.  
_

_... ... ... ... ... ... ...  
_

"...R...Robin...?" Starfire stammered opening her blurry eyes to see the clouded vision of the same boy from her dream, as he reached out his hand towards her. But the Robin in her dreams had always hidden the sadness in his eyes under his mask. That cruel black mask she had secretly always hated. Because it allowed him to keep his earth boy secrets, to deny her of ever knowing what was really going on inside his heart. That boy was very different from the Robin who stood before her now, who was hiding nothing of his dark intent in the blank cruel gaze of those achingly pale blue eyes.

"Be patient for awhile, Starfire. It's almost over." The boy said gently as the girl stirred. "Soon you can just think of this as a bad dream." Reaching out to touch her cheek the boy traced the lines of her silken face with his fingers stopping just short of her lips. Blushing Starfire let out a small outcry of surprise, unused to her normally callous friend being so forward. This was unlike the Robin she knew, to touch her so freely and without the guards he used to face the world.

And for a few seconds she almost forgot that he was now their enemy.

Robin's nose crinkled in amusement at the girl's suddenly shyness and he decided to be a gentleman, casually dropping his hand before he could embarrass her further.

Now that she was waking up and the drug's heavy sedative cleared from her mind Starfire quickly realized that she couldn't move. Glancing down she saw that reinforced construction cable had been knotted in thick coils, binding her hands behind her.

"Oh by the way... sorry for the rough treatment back there, Star." Her captor said with an apologetic grin as he watched her struggle to free herself from her bonds with no luck. With the drug still slightly in her system she was not at full fighting capacity yet and that little bit of cable was still more than enough to hold her. "It was a cheap shot sending a little girl in to do my dirty work, I know." Robin said scratching his chin, "But while you're not as strong as Superman, I couldn't afford any screw ups." Holding up a syringe of the silver liquid Rose had trapped her with his smile darkened, "This stuff isn't cheap or easy to make, you know. So I had to make sure I got it right the first time."

"Robin-" The alien girl began before she was silenced by the sound of a loud whistle.

Putting two fingers in his mouth Robin gave the signal to a nearby Slade bot that he was ready to proceed. Immediately complying with its orders the drone pulled the lever and hoisted Starfire up to join the ranks of the other Titans also tied to Slade's new laser cannon. The limp, sedated forms of Beast Boy and Kid Flash hung motionless next to her as she was fastened tightly to the titanium barrel.

"Now let me see," Robin said casually pacing in a small circle around the cannon. Playfully hamming up his deduction as if he were Sherlock Holmes the boy announced, "So I'm new at this evil gloating thing so bear with me, but if I know Cyborg like I think I do he's still in the tower trying to fix the mess I made of it with the laser cannon." Pointing a thumb towards the entrance where Slade and Raven's angry cries were tearing through the small island he continued, "And Raven is over there playing catch up with Slade. So that leaves all the Titans accounted for but one." Blue eyes burning through heavy black eyelashes he glanced up at her, "Olly olly oxen free, Star." As his lips curled into a smile Starfire felt her blood run cold as he simply asked, "Just tell me where Jericho is so we can finally end this little game."

He was beautiful despite the evil words spilling from his lips. And for the first time in the three years since her descent to earth the boy she loved was no longer hiding under a mask or the word hero. He stood below her now just as she had always wanted to see him: as simply a boy.

But not anymore. How she took back her foolish wish. Closing her eyes she cursed the day she ever thought she'd prefer that face any other way then as the one she knew. She wanted the old Robin back. She preferred that boy with his masks and secrets to the beautiful monster that dared to speak with her friend's sweet voice.

But no matter how she wished to awaken from the nightmare, she knew that the Robin below her would not vanish if she simply closed her eyes and counted to three.

And the more she stared down at the handsome young man who stood in Robin's place, the more a insatiable anger ripped through her body. She was angry at him for becoming this thing, and at herself for failing to save him. Rage running like molten lava through her veins she felt the irises of her eyes become swallowed in light and glow hot. "Though you may sound like him and look like him." Starfire quivered trying to keep her voice steady as she spat, "You are _not _our Robin."

"Ding, you win the door prize?" Robin asked trying to be helpful even though he quickly realized his commentary wasn't appreciated.

The young alien above him was powerless as she hung from the snares of her metal prison but despite that Starfire was radiating pure intimidation. It had been a long time since the last time he had seen her this mad and that brought back memories. In fact she had all the ferocity and malice of the first day he had met her.

Despite being completely insane Robin could feel a single sliver of sweat trickle down his neck as she glared at him with the fury of hell. "Ah ha. Scary, scary." Robin flinched closing his eyes and throwing his hands up in mock surrender. "C'mon don't be mad at me, Star. I really hate to see you unhappy."

The start of Starfire's battle cry almost erupted from her lips as the fire in her eyes reached boiling point. But then just as easily as it had appeared the burning rage vanished from her stare instead instantly replaced with a icy look of disdain. She let out a sigh suddenly bearing a resemblance to Blackfire and simply looked annoyed. "I can see clearly now that you are no different from those empty robots at your side," Starfire muttered her eyes half lidded in repulsion.

"I pity you, Robin."

Frowning just a little Robin was surprised at how much that single sentence managed to get under his skin. He had been expecting her to sob and plead. In fact he preferred her three seconds ago when she had looked angry enough to strike him dead. Seeing her instead regard him only with that cold mix of disgust and pity made him strangely... angry.

_Really_ angry.

Clutching his chest he was little unsure how to deal with this. It was the first semblance of an emotion he had felt since he had gone crazy. His heart was racing, his insides churned and felt acidic.

And he really didn't like it.

He could take her fury, her hatred, her agony but... her pity?

He _hated_ to be pitied.

Just like last time, just like Bruce. Fists and teeth clenched Robin's eyes narrowed into slits. Only the weak needed to be pitied.

The boy took a step forward his mouth ajar to snarl something back before they were suddenly interrupted by the pitter patter of small feet.

Breaking through a wave of Slade Bots was the familiar figure of Robin's white haired pet. "Robin!" Rose called childishly running up and hugging his waist in greeting once she reached him, "The last of the plastic explosives are in place." Squeezing him tighter she stole a glance up at Starfire and used it as a perfect opportunity to rub it in her face. "Titan's Tower has less than fifteen minutes before it's swimming at the bottom of the ocean."

Bringing a hand up to his face Robin knotted his fingers in his temple and took a deep breath.

"Perfect timing, squirt." He said quietly his face still hidden in the shadow of his arm. "I... almost let myself get carried away there."

Dropping his hand to his side the look of blank rage on the boy's face from Starfire's insult had vanished and it was once again replaced with the angelically serene mask he now normally preferred to wear. Patting Rose on the head the alien's cold words were forgotten as he beamed, "I knew I could count on you, Rose. I'll let Slade know we're ahead of schedule." Bending down he handed her another vial of the silver liquid and gently instructed, "But there's been a slight change of plans. I have to go finish things on the inside so I'm leaving you with a big job okay?"

"What job is that Robin?" Rose asked curiously.

"Your brother is still somewhere on the outside, Rose. I need you to find him and infect him before the explosives detonate. This stuff is worthless if we get ourselves blown up in the process." Robin explained. "And if I know Cyborg he sent the other Titans outside to protect the exterior so he could get the mainframe up and running again." Glancing at the horrible battle at the Tower's entrance Robin crossed his arms and took it all in. "Not to mention Slade might not be able to handle Raven on his own." Speaking from experience he added, "She's pretty scary when she gets angry. So I only have a few minutes to make sure the Tower's defense system isn't activated or else all our hard work won't count for much." In the same serious tone he would use when he had to ask someone the impossible he breathed, "I know I'm asking a lot, Rose. And I know you don't want to see him. But we don't have any other choice." Pausing he looked at the girl fighting with the horrible task he had just placed her with, "Can you do that for me?"

The girl only wrestled with the last remains of her soul for a moment or two before her small hand clasped around the syringe. "I'll do anything you ask me to, Robin." She said sweetly, "Besides getting to pay back my brother for a life time of hurt is just an added bonus."

Smiling warmly in reply Robin ruffled her hair, "Alright. Just make sure you get out before the explosions start."

"NO!" Starfire exclaimed wrestling even more vigorously from within the cable's grasp. Angry tears welled her in eyes that she refused to shed. Tears meant nothing to Robin anymore that much was obvious, so she swore to herself that she would shed no more for him. Still it was a promise she was finding harder and harder to keep.

"Robin..." The beautiful alien choked as the image of the masked boy she loved so much shattered into cruel reality as he was replaced by this monster. Gone was the solemn, awkward young man who hid behind his tough exterior so the world wouldn't see how gentle he really was.

He was too far out of reach this time and the darkness between them was vast.

"Please Robin... you must NOT destroy our home." Starfire cried.

The boy only stared at her coolly, his gaze the same frigid temperature as ice water as he seemed completely unmoved by her pleas.

"Surely you know how important it is." Starfire stammered trying to find some small shred of humanity left in this Robin's eyes, "For us Titan's Tower is more than just the "t", it is more than the stone and steel! At the beginning you said that no matter what it would always be the one place we could always return to. That it would always be a symbol of our friendship." Shaking with so much anger and grief it almost consumed her she snapped, "You promised... you promised that it would always be our home."

"I'm sorry, Starfire." Robin said quietly after several seconds of silence. Knotting a hand in his dark locks the boy took a deep breath before adding, "But sometimes people have to break their promises. To me it's just a building now. There is nothing at all worth saving in this hunk of metal." Walking past her he did not see her face as she finally broke down to the wretched tears her warrior's pride had refused to let her shed. "I don't need you... or this tower anymore." He stated honestly his eyes full of deadly determination.

"Which is exactly why I plan to topple it to the ground. "

To be continued...


	26. Missing Punchlines

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 26: Missing Punchlines

-The Abandoned Factory-

(24 Hours Before Doomsday)

Robin had been staring at the super computer for so long his eyes were starting to hurt. A small frown etching on his face the boy let out a small sigh and fingered his chin.

In the large tanks to his left and right were millions of harmless looking specs that would soon signal the end of all things. For the moment though the sea of microscope nanobots remained dormant; glowing softly as they caught the back light of the computer. There was a strange beauty to them as they swam like jellyfish in the empty black. Even now it was hard to imagine that behind that glass and the unassuming mass of liquid was a nightmare from which the world would never awake from.

"Hmm." He sighed tilting his head from one direction to the other. "That won't work either," The boy murmured out loud.

A few minutes of silence passed before he finally let out a frustrated huff.

So far he still couldn't find a way around the mental dead end he had come across.

The small leak he had surgically punctured on the tank's compressor had allowed for the disease to spread into the air vents for two days now and still no one had discovered it. Though it wouldn't matter now even if someone did.

Just one day and Slade was going to die from the same nanotechnology he tried to use to make Robin subservient the first time.

Poetic justice at it's finest.

But... it still wasn't quite perfect yet.

Joker had immunity to most forms of toxins and Slade's healing abilities were far beyond that of a normal human's. It was the only logical explanation as to why the villain never managed to stay dead for long.

Still Robin had to find a way to make sure neither one of them got up this time or there wouldn't be much point to anything he had worked so hard to accomplish these last few days.

Now if he was just looking for a way around poisons, he knew a slender red head down in Gotham that was more than capable of fitting the bill. But there were several good reasons not to keep Poison Ivy any closer than arm's length. Just like her name suggested she could be deadly to people of his gender, and they had quite a rocky relationship to mend despite him switching sides. He doubted she'd help him no matter how nicely he asked.

Besides he reasoned the robots and man-made chemistry that CP9 was composed of probably wouldn't interest her and her botany. But if Poison Ivy was out of the picture who else did he know that would do the trick?

Chemo?

No.

Madam Rouge?

Nah.

Then it hit him.

The Brain.

If there was anyone in Jump City who could offer him some insight into the plans he needed, it would be the Brain. But thanks to the Titans' valiant efforts bringing down the Brotherhood of Evil half a year earlier the Brain was no longer a active player in the Game of Life.

"Che, and we're back where we started." He muttered kicking up a small dust cloud.

Shoving his hands in his pockets the Boy Wonder decided that maybe a change of atmosphere would offer some illumination on his dilemma. After all he didn't want to seem obsessed now did he?

Casually stepping into the main warehouse Robin didn't see any signs of the Joker or Slade. In fact the only sign of life around him took form in Lou and Bud; the Joker's two hyenas recently moved here from Gotham by Harley Quinn's request. At the moment the animals were making themselves at home as they finished shredding apart the contents of an opened crate. Packing paper and wood splinters carpeted the floor and ceiling like confetti as the hyenas indulged in their satisfied crunching.

But the two quickly sensed Robin's presence and Harley's "babies" didn't seem too happy to see him. The animals knew when they were in the presence of a more dangerous predator, and despite their fierce nature the hyenas backed away from the boy immediately. Tails and ears flattened the pair let out small defiant growls as they inched themselves as far into the back corner as possible. It was obvious that their weak yips were nothing more but the feeble attempt to hide how scared they were of the boy.

Smiling ever so slightly Robin walked past, watching them out of the corner of his eye as they cowered and shrank.

They were smart to know their place in the food chain, and more importantly what would happen to them if they crossed him.

Such a shame though, Robin vaguely remembered. He used to be such an animal lover.

Continuing up the stairs Robin lulled over the girl who considered herself the Joker's Moll.

Harley Quinn was hands down probably the perfect henchman.

Love tied her to the Joker and made her helpless to his charms. And in the public's eye her mask of playfulness almost blinded the amateurs to how unpredictable and dangerous she really was.

According to Batman at least.

As far as twisted evil criminal minds go Robin was pretty sure Harley Quinn was on the shallow end of that dream pool. Once upon a time she might have been brilliant, but now as far as Robin was concerned if Webster had a picture next to the term ding bat she'd be on it.

But still she served a purpose. After all there was something very useful about people who could be as easily manipulated as Harley.

The boy found her in one of the women worker dorms.

She didn't sense his presence from the darkness. Instead the blond bombshell had found two old dolls lying on the toy factory floor and was content to bash the two dolls' together in a mock fight. Watching her crash the toys into one another Robin found it hard to believe the woman had once been a renowned criminal psychologist. Harley was so engrossed in her game of pretend that she didn't even notice the boy inch close enough to touch her face.

"Hey Harl, do you have a minute?" Robin asked affectionately as he appeared out of nowhere, tapping her on the shoulder.

"YIIIIII!" The girl shrieked instantly gagging on the wad of bubble gum she had been smacking around her lips; completely taken by surprise. Coughing and hacking as the gum slid down the wrong tube Harley spilled out on the floor. It took a few seconds of flailing around like a dying fish before she successful managed to spit it back out.

Stepping out of the way before the pink saliva filled wad made it's way on to his shoes Robin moved back an inch just as the girl's hands clasped around his shoulders and she proceeded to shake him angrily.

"Criminy Tweety Bird!" The girl snarled as she fought to choke out words and breathe at the same time, "Didn't you ever learn how to knock?" Finished reaming him she released him and placed a hand on her heart before rasping, "That's the second time I almost got whacked off Wrigley style. What is it with you and B-man anyways?"

"Sorry about that Zippy, old habits die hard." Robin grinned giving her a few helpful whacks on the back since she still sounded like she had swallowed a frog.

"You're just lucky I left my bazooka in my other purse or else you'd be wearing your spleen for a neck tie." Harley frowned before plopping down on a nearby crate. Slightly curious that the boy would want to come to her for anything she asked, "So whatcha want to talk about?"

"Can I ask you a question? I'm sort of stuck in a rut." Robin asked leaning on the wall next to her. Pausing for a second he held his hands out and rationalized, "This might seem random but humor me. I just realized that besides the Joker, you and Poison Ivy have quite a good relationship."

"Sure, everyone knows that." Quinn replied eagerly as she tilted back and forth on the crate, "Red's a good slice of alright. She and I go together like napalm and pie dough!" Brow furrowing she stared at him like he was stupid, "Why do you care?"

Brushing it off Robin shrugged, "Just idle curiosity."

"So how did you survive living with her all that time?" The boy continued as he slid back into detective mode, "I haven't been in Gotham for a while but the last time I checked her favorite hideouts still involved nuclear hot spots and toxic ooze. And as far as I know no one's thrown you into a vat of chemicals."

"Boy I wish, y'know." Harley sighed rubbing her arm in bad memory, "Instead all I got was shots." Making a face she moaned, "And I have a real thing about shots. Especially those big ones that look like they belong in a gag shop!"

But with a clownish shrug she tried to brush the ordeal off, "But that's what I got. Red didn't tell me what was in it, I didn't ask but whatever it was did the trick. Toxic junk hasn't bothered me since."

"You're immune too then." Robin said quietly under his breath. Fingering his chin he lost himself in thought, as another tidbit just added to his list of problems. "Hmm, now thing's are really complicated."

"Yeesh, stop if it starts to hurt kid." Harley joked as she watched the gears turn in the boy's head, not sure why he suddenly got so serious.

"One last question Quinn, and then I'll let you go back to your death match." Robin said glancing at the discarded dolls. "Joker's smart, but recently your little toys haven't been fitting his M.O." Eyes narrowing he asked, "They aren't Slade's or Lex Luthor's either. So tell me, where'd you steal them? "

"Hey, I resent that remark thank you very much!" Harley huffed crossing her legs and arms in a forceful pout. "Mr. J's a genius. Besides are you really suggesting that _my_ Puddin would do something like steal the work of other hard working super villains?"

"That's _exactly_ what I'm implying." Robin said with a smile as he inched closer to her, "And I want you to tell me how you do it, because I want to steal something from the Brain."

"Oh, is that all?" Harley chuckled patting him on the head now that his good intentions had been made clear, "Ah Robbie you're so cute when you're being sneaky." Bringing out a handkerchief she forced back a sob, "Y'know, these are the moments that make a girl glad she started terrorizing the public!" Blowing her weight in boogers into the linen rag the clown girl exclaimed, "I'm just so darn proud!"

"C'mon Harley, you can give me a gold star later." Robin scoffed brushing her off. "So let's hear it."

"Oh alright. Party pooper." Quinn scowled as she was forced to stop the dramatic wailing. Folding her hands she cleared her throat and paused for dramatic effect. Then once the suspense had been set she replied, "Try the Jump City Special Crimes Dangerous Evidence Vault."

Eyes widening Robin realized it was too easy.

Reached forward he grabbed her by the shoulders and exclaimed, "Harley, I could kiss you! Of course. I can't believe I didn't think of it myself." Fingering his chin his mind was reeling with the evil possibilities, "Who needs to steal from the bad guys themselves, when you can just steal their technology from the evidence room later? That's the last place the cops would ever suspect to catch a costumed villain."

"Oh yeah, most of the crooks in Gotham have been looting the vault for years." Harley chimed in, "And you never know what kind of goodies you can find. Last time we hit the joint me and Red found all sort's of things."

Putting a finger to her mouth she quirked, "Huh. Y'know we also found a pair of Riddler's exploding boxers." Sliding a hand on her hips she smirked, "That one was a little too Looney Toons even for me. I really think Eddy needs a girlfriend."

"Funny, I always figured him for briefs." Robin chuckled getting up and turning his back on the girl. "Thanks for the tips, Harl. You've been a big help."

"Hey kid, wait a second!" Harley called stopping him before he could leave. Glancing over his shoulder the darkness of the hall washed out most of his features but Harley could see his eyes burning through the black like candlelight.

The blonde took a deep breath and almost seemed apprehensive as she asked,"Well, I just wanna know, d-did you mean what you said to Slade back there?"

Fidgeting she paused, "You know, about whacking off Bruce Wayne I mean."

"And what do you care what happens to Bruce Wayne?" Robin asked his voice getting darker.

And in a single second the boy she had been making underwear jokes with was gone. Replaced by the monster who only looked like a teenager, the same cold and dark fiend that made her more uncomfortable than any bout of insanity that came out of Mr. J.

Faltering she was quickly losing her nerve. "It's just, you know, a couple years ago in Arkham, I was honestly trying to go legit. Get my head on straight... and nobody was willing to give me a shot. Except your boy billionaire there, he convinced the board to give me parole when no one else would've."

"And in the end you turned out to be just another villain made possible by a grant from the Wayne Foundation." Robin sighed before his voice hardened.

"Yeah, that's right. Bruce _does_ act as a layman member of Arkham's medical commission every now and again." The boy said replied tonelessly, "So what? I could be a medical commissioner _too_ if my father was Thomas Wayne."

"Ah c'mon now, Robbie. That's a little harsh don'tcha think?" Harley said with a nervous smile now that Robin seemed downright dangerous. "I mean sure, so he's a spoiled rich boy who ain't never had no real problems. But he's still the closest thing to a pop you've had over the years." Giving him a hard look she asked, "I mean you don't really want to kill him... d-do you?"

Robin was silent for a few seconds.

It was things like this that made the poor intern gone insane henchwench strangely likeable. Despite everything Harley had done to him over the the years, Robin doubted he could hate her even if he was still capable of that emotion. Sure it had been her little trick that had force fed him the drug that had turned him into a whack job himself, but at her core Harley Quinn still remained slightly innocent.

She would forever be more the tragic victim of abuse then a criminal mastermind.

Sure she hurt people, and her hands certainly weren't clean but even in his current state of mind Robin just couldn't put her on the same level as people like the Joker or Poison Ivy.

It was almost too funny, to think that the Joker's right hand girl was trying to stand up for Bruce.

So he laughed.

Unlike Joker this laugh wasn't trademarked evil nor twisted enough to cripple someone into a sweat induced tremble. But it was more than enough to have the same effect on Harley. There was something about the way the boy was staring down at her. His dead soulless eyes that could burn like hell fire, mocking her with his soft angelic laugh and boyish smile. All of it was more frightening than anything you could pull out of a horror movie.

"I think I missed the joke, " Harley stammered trying sound more courageous then she felt. "What's so funny?"

"You." Robin said sweetly taking a step towards her, "But you didn't miss the joke, Zippy. You missed the _punchline_."

In a matter of seconds he had taken her by the throat, shoving her off the crate and using the force behind it to slam her into the wall. Letting out a weak ragged gasp for air Harley was crushed hard into the cement behind her.

"Harley," Robin chided as if he was berating a small child, "In two days Joker and Slade are going to eradicate three cities to the ground." Jabbing a finger into the girl's ribcage he added, "Do you really think that your _precious_ Puddin will spare pretty little Poison Ivy or anyone else if you ask him nicely?" Eyes narrowing he shook his head, "It doesn't work that way, kid. In two days Gotham, Jump City and Metropolis are going to be wiped off the map." He said whispering in her ear, "Poof. Dust."

Tightening his grip he breathed, "So before you ask me if _I'm_ serious, I think you should turn that question on yourself. Because this time Harl, it's not a joke."

Disgusted with her he let her go, watching her fall like a bag of sand to the floor.

Harley gagged and heaved for air as she fought the urge to wretch. "You know you may be off your rocker but you're no fun anymore, kid." She whispered clutching her throat.

Taking a single step towards her Robin took out a small flash of silver and Harley immediately cringed at the thought of a knife or worse coming her way. Instead it was nothing more than a small silver syringe that the boy harmlessly threw at her feet.

"Maybe you're right, Harl. I probably _should_ lighten up." He agreed. Casually cupping her chin with all the grace of a devil the boy met her gaze, "So let's play a little game. That ought to make things fun again." Dramatically he announced, "It's called: Shut up and do what I say, or you'll really regret it later."

Cracking his knuckles he looked down at the woman, "And here are the rules. Rule Number One: pick that up."

Gulping Harley reached a quivering hand out for the syringe.

"Good girl." Robin said gently patting her head, "You see I need you to do something for me the next time you see Batman. So here's Rule Number Two. And listen and listen good Harl, after all your life pretty much depends on it."

-Gotham City Marina-

(The Present)

"Harley...?"

"HARLEY!"

"**HEY STUPID! LOOK ALIVE!"**

Whirling out of her thoughts Harley looked up to see the Joker's face hoovering inches from her own. "S-sorry Mr. J!" The girl exclaimed as she resumed feeding a giant ammunition belt into Joker's machine gun. "I got a little sidetracked."

"Fine, whatever." The Joker huffed completely oblivious to Harley's strange behavior and her trembling hands, "Just go check on the old hag in the back."

"'You got it boss," Harley squeaked quickly putting the syringe Robin had given her into her boot for safe keeping, "Anything you say! See this is me checking on the old hag." She stuttered making a run for Dr. Thompkins.

A shadow suddenly passed over the moon causing the clown to look up as the sleek, streamline figure of the Bat Jet began its decent towards him. His beaded eyes glittering with anticipation Joker could barely contain himself as Batman inched ever closer.

"Oh Bat's, it's been nine years in the making but at last it's time for the final curtain call!" The Clown Prince of Gotham belted in glee, "And I'm gonna make sure you and this city melt like a grilled cheese sandwich! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

To be continued...


	27. It Only Hurts When You Laugh

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 27: It Only Hurts When You Laugh

**Author's Rantings: First off, so much thanks to my Beta reader who actually came up with this chapter scenario. I wouldn't have gotten past the first paragraph if not for his great insight. But bear with me guys, I need to vent before we get started. Now when I originally set out to write this story in the summer of 2006 (yeah... I never thought it would take me almost four years to finish this thing, but anyways...) I was blissfully unaware of the fact that the Teen Titans movie Trouble in Tokyo had just come out. While I've watched most of the DC animated movies over the years this one never interested me. To me the plot seemed like a failed attempt to squeeze some money out of the franchise since production of the 6th** **season was sadly canceled. So, little late to the party but I finally got around to watching it while I was on call the other day at the station. And... it was a load of crap. I think it might have been the crappiest thing to come out of DC since they let Chris O'Donnell wear tights. I feel the urge to punch David Slack in the face for writing that slapped together piece of *insert your favorite profanity here*. Now I know the Animated Series and Teen Titans have gaping plot differences but I do still believe in staying true to the basics. And language training is crime fighting knowledge 101 for someone who can't get mummy and daddy to pack them into a spaceship and ship them to a planet where they can bend steel with their butt cheeks. Not to mention Robin was trained and raised by Bruce frickin Wayne. So of course he knows how to speak Japanese, Dick can speak that along with 5 other languages. Don't believe me, wiki it. But watching him bumble around Tokyo with all the grace of a stereotypical American jackass, shaking down people who could speak English well it completely disgusted me. Ultimately that whole movie is 90 minutes of my life I can't get back and I won't even go into the badly pieced together romance thing. But I'll stop there, I could seriously spend the length of a chapter raging but I'll stop there. There is a point in all this even though it's a small one. And that is this: Trouble in Tokyo's storyline, it's plot, it isn't going to be seen anywhere in this story. As far as I'm concerned the Titans ended after Season 5. And that blissful denial dear readers is the only way I can still go to bed liking Warner Bros Animation. So now that that little bit of happy is out of the way, we now return you to your regularly scheduled program.**

(Gotham City)

There had been things Bruce Wayne had expected the night he gave up his humanity. When he made his vow to the two corpses that had once called him son, Batman thought he knew what lonely existence was waiting for him in the years to come. Sometimes greatness was forged in the crucible of tragedy.

So Bruce had never counted on happiness being part of the equation.

Instead he had accepted with a dour certainty that there would be losses in the ranks of those who were close to him, with or without the cowl. He had buried his parents, broken the hearts of many a girl who dared to love him, and even lost his best friend Harvey Dent to chance and chaos.

They were all causalities sacrificed to the madness of this city.

So why then?

Why had he been foolish enough to believe that Dick Grayson was the only thing in this world that was supposed to be eternal?

Irrational deceptions, Batman had realized.

Because the more you treasure something the deeper you are hurt by its loss.

A lesson that should have been burned into him the first time.

But somewhere down the road a small hand had taken his and decided to walk the same lonely path he had chosen for himself. Someone who had believed in the cause just as he did, and even crazier still someone who had believed in him.

This person was just a child.

A boy who was brave enough to smile in the face of such overpowering loss and adversity... a boy braver than he had been.

Who was probably still braver than he was.

In some ways Robin took the harder road in the Dynamic Duo, wearing the red and green and standing freely in the light while Batman bathed in darkness. He made himself a visible target and dauntingly challenged those who did wrong without relying on the fear and manipulation that the Dark Knight used to instill in the hearts of criminals. Robin had always fought Batman's war without giving up his humanity. While Batman sealed his soul in a lead coffin so not to feel the sting of the world, Robin continued to take a chance and wear his heart on his sleeve despite the risks that came with that.

Doubt and Fury alone were Bruce's dark passengers tonight.

Was Batman only a cliche?

Only a self righteous delusion drafted up from grief to quell his own insanity?

After all how much good could one man truly do?

When he couldn't even protect those closest to him.

Thought was so difficult now, and the only thing that seemed real anymore was the cold blanket like rage that seemed to swallow his very soul.

Only a single sentence broke through the anger that rolled around in his head.

A sentence told to him during Batman's start... at the only time his butler and oldest friend ever seemed to doubt him.

"You walk across the abyss every night, Master Bruce and so far you've never fallen in." Alfred had told him, "I can only pray that the night you do never comes."

As Batman's craft circled the area one more time his thoughts wandered back to those somber words.

Would tonight be the night he finally lost his footing?

-Gotham Fairgrounds-

Haley's Circus.

Of all the places in the world to meet the boy it was cruelly ironic that he had chosen the place of their first meeting.

However this was nothing like the warm, bustling world that Dick Grayson had originated from. Now the circus seemed a dead and black void. The trailers and tents were empty, doors half open and belongings casually draped on lockers as if all the residents of Haley's Circus had suddenly been spirited away.

Mist crept in from the evening chill, seeping through the abandoned fairgrounds and carpeting everything like a specter from some nightmare. Even the animal cages were perfectly still, as if every creature had been forced into a terror filled silence.

No stars, no moon, only a empty black sky.

The sound of crunching leaves under Batman's feet was the sole thing left to remind him that any of this was real.

Then a single kindling of life broke through the emptiness.

It took form in a strange eerie light that beckoned from the main tent, where one of the flaps was ajar ever so slightly.

Welcoming him in.

It was almost pitch black as Batman carefully peeled back the layers of the canvas and stepped inside. The dim light he had seen from the outside was coming from a lone table lamp that had been placed on a wooden chair directly in the center of the main ring.

Taking a slow concise breath, Batman eyes narrowed and the stony mask of the ever grim Caped Crusader washed away whatever hesitation he might have had.

As he prepared himself to bring his own son to justice.

"Robin?" Batman called just as he stepped out into the dead center of the ring.

And right on cue the switch to the generator flickered on illuminating the darkness with strobe lights and the jarring mechanical tune of circus music. Momentarily blinded Batman shielded his eyes with his hands as he was greeted by an insane cackle he had come to know all too well.

"Robin?" A voice asked from above Batman. High in the rafters by the spotlight Joker forced mock hurt as he lowered it out of Batman's face, "Is that all you came here to talk about? And what am I, chopped liver?"

"Where is he, Joker?" Batman snarled, "And what have you done with Dr. Thompkins?"

"Oh I'm sure the old girl's somewhere around here." Joker chided from his spot on the rafters. "Sorry to disappoint Bats but Robin couldn't make it for tonight's fun." The clown said as he dangled his legs off the banister in childish glee, "But don't you worry, we can still have plenty of laughs without the kid! After all this may be the last gag we ever have." Red lips and yellow teeth flashing he reasoned, "In case you haven't heard we're sitting on a biological powder keg that's ready to pop!"

Despite himself Batman visibly flinched at that.

He had steeled himself so adamantly in preparation for what would await him upon coming here tonight. And whether he should be relieved or dread what the lack of Robin's presence meant had yet to be seen.

For whatever small weak part of Batman might have feared what awaited him in their next encounter; the bitterness of knowing that Robin was still out of reach, still unable to be saved ran much more rancid.

"Why go along with all of this Joker?" Batman asked trying to make some sense out of the antics of the insane man, "Getting rid of Gotham is one thing, I could see you being twisted enough for that. You've even tried it before." Eyes narrowing he grumbled, "But this kind of mass genocide is corny even for you. What good are your psychotic displays of comedy without an audience?"

"Now is that really what you think of me?" The clown asked scoffing, "Gee no wonder Bird Boy got fed up with you: you think you know _everything_ don't you?"

Taking it in Joker paused for a few moments before shrugging, "But I'll admit you have a point there. This little stunt isn't normally in my bag of tricks. Still I couldn't miss a chance to wallop you where it hurts, so when Slade told me the real plan was getting your junior detective to play for our team I was all ears. And it's pure comic genius! Why it's gold!" Throwing back his head he decided to indulge in the humor of the situation, filling the arena with the bouts of his insane mirth.

Now it was the little things like this that made Batman so much fun.

Joker got to laugh with the sick satisfaction of knowing that every second of his insatiable glee bore through the Grim Avenger with more force than any onslaught of bullets ever could. In fact the Clown Prince of Crime couldn't remember the last time he had had such a gas. Watching Batman struggle and so far fail to maintain that normally so iron clad control only made him want to mock the Dark Knight all the more.

White hands knotting around the railing the mad clown leaned forward so he could bask in the masked man's obvious rage, "They can't write em half as juicy as this can they Bats?" Fingering his long pointed chin Joker relished the ultimate punchline, "In the end the Dark Knight's greatest adversary of all time turns out to be his old wayward partner in crime."

Below him Batman's fist and teeth were clenched, pure unmitigated fury pouring into every inch of his body.

"What's this?" The psychopath asked, "No clever comebacks or witty remarks for me? I'm almost disappointed." Sliding a hand on his waist he sighed, "But then it's so hard to live up to the expectations of others."

This time the only response Batman gave him was his fist colliding into the Joker's mouth.

In record time even for the Caped Crusader he had fired a grappling hook into the rafters, pulling himself up and instantly clearing the distance between himself and the Joker before the clown had finished talking.

It was met with another fist and another.

The second blow broke part of his nose, Joker could feel the cartilage from his bridge lodge up almost instantly. The third knock landing cleanly on his jaw a millisecond later practically rendering him unconscious from the sheer power.

Bat's might be trying to be cool and calm on the outside but there was no doubt he was angry.

Almost the crazy kind of angry.

Choking and hacking on his own blood Joker's insane laugh was cut off as he was savagely hoisted off the iron balcony by gloved hands.

"AHAAAAAHAAAA!" He gurgled as a few scattered teeth that had been knocked out of the back of his mouth rolled off his tongue and fell in a bloody puddle at Batman's feet. "You really socked me good that time, Bats." He wheezed wiping the drool and blood off his blistered mouth,"Was it something I said?"

"I'll deal with Slade later. Now I'm only going to ask you one more time, Joker. So _last_ chance." Batman seethed, "Where's Dr. Thompkins?"

"Right here, B-man." Harley's voice called back from the main ring. Stepping out of the darkness the girl was holding her trademark Tommy gun to the woman in question's head.

Bound and gagged Leslie desperately tried to belt out a muffled sentence to the Dark Knight but whatever she was trying to tell him was lost in the bundle of cloth in her mouth.

"Easy there toots before you bust something," Harley chided before she turned to the looming figure in the rafters, "Put my puddin down Bats, or granny here'll end up like a piece of Swiss cheese. Besides," She added, "You're ruining the fun for our other party guests."

"Other guests?" Batman repeated darkly.

"Sure," Harley replied. "You don't think Robbie chose this spot to meetcha just because he gets the warm squishies from this place do ya?" With a satisfied grin she remarked, "For all _you_ know we could have all the saps in this joint stashed somewhere. So let's not rule out the possibility for negotiations shall we?"

Dropping the Joker with a disinterested thud Batman's eyes narrowed into slits as he was forced into this temporary stalemate. A setback that at least gave him a chance at collecting the fragments of his self control. Drawing in a deep rush of air he curtly stated , "Starting talking, Quinn."

"Robin told me to give ya something." Harley said as she momentarily fumbled to pull Robin's syringe out of her boot and hold the gun on the old dame at the same time. Yanking it up for him to see once it was finally out she continued, "He says if you take your medicine no questions asked that you can have the doc here safe and sound."

"Just like that?" Batman asked sceptically glancing at the Joker. "Playing by someone else's rules: that's rare for you, Joker."

"Oh, what do I care Bats? The doc's a footnote, small potatoes in the scheme of my grand finale. And hey since the whole city is going up in smoke anyways, if you want the old bird you can have her." Joker said nonchalantly. Picking himself up off the floor the clown dusted his suit, flicked a bloody tooth out of his cumber-bun and went on with business as usual, "Honestly I don't know why the kid snagged her in the first place. He could have spared us both the theatrics considering how painfully predictable you are."

"You heard him. It's your call, Batman." Harley chimed in, "One of you get to play Frankenstein. So who's it gonna be: you or the doc here?"

Taking a good hard look at the silver ampul in the clown girl's hand Batman tried to second guess what could have compelled Robin to make such strange demands.

Medicine was as far away from the correct term for the object as you could get.

After all silver wasn't exactly a color found in nature and that alone ruled out most forms of drugs and toxins the Dark Knight had encountered over the years.

The contents of phial instead looked like something cooked out of a cybernetic lab in lieu of a pharmaceutical company. Pulsating, swimming in the liquid base as if the ingredients were alive whatever it was functioned more like the safeguards used in advanced robotics.

Then it hit him.

And suddenly there was the nightmarish moment when all the puzzles pieces that weren't supposed to exist snapped together.

Robin's real motive suddenly came into clear, horrible focus.

"C'mon Bat's some of us don't have all night," Joker called as he counted his to do list on his fingers, "We have cities to level, populations to thin out. So now what's it gonna be?"

Taking a deep breath Batman and Leslie locked eye contact; before he raised both his hands in complete resignation, "Let her go, Quinn. If it's a trade you want, you have it. I won't fight you."

"Y-you mean it?" Harley stammered more than a little at a loss for words at his instant compliance, "Just like that?"

"I give you my word." Batman said tonelessly beginning his slow descent towards the staircase at the end of steel cage to meet his fate.

"Bravo, Batsy very commendable!" Joker praised nodding his head in awe at Batman's selfless act of surrender. "Offering yourself up as guinea pig just to give that old kook an extra 24 hours of life. What a swell guy!" Getting a slightly constipated look on his face the Joker mulled it over, "Hmm, but on second thought I don't think I like that sort of ending. What a snore. If you're going to kick the bucket once and for all, it needs a little spunk, a little pizazz, wouldn't you agree?" Pulling a pistol out of his pocket the Joker fired a single shot.

And with remarkable accuracy or just plain dumb luck it directly intercepted the vial in Harley's hands; shattering it into thousands of pieces as soon as it made contact.

Feeling a warm, sticky liquid spill down her hand it took Harley a second or two to realize how close she had come to losing a few fingers. Thankfully she was covered in silver goop and not her own blood but she was still finding it hard to pick her mouth up from the floor.

"H-hey." She choked, "HEY!"

Snarling once she was able to form words again Harley couldn't just believe it. Angrily stamping her foot she exclaimed, "HEY CLOWN! You really could have hurt someone with that thing!"

"So what's your point?" Joker asked blankly.

"What is this, Joker?" Batman asked whirling back around to face the mad clown. While there were few things to put past the Joker, destroying the very thing that had moments earlier given him the edge was crazy even by his standards.

Forgetting her anger momentarily Harley chimed in, "Yeah puddin, why'd you stop him?"

"Sorry Pooh, but I think the cat's out of the bag." Joker replied, "And I just don't think Robin's still playing our little game." Seeing that an explanation was in order he continued, "You see I figured the squirt might be up to something like this. And the look on Bat's just now confirmed it."

"What are you saying?" The Dark Knight seethed.

"I'm _saying_ that this is a simple case of misrepresentation, Batman." Joker reasoned staring him down as if he was stupid, "I knew from the start that Slade just doesn't know ol Rob half as well as he thinks he does. And that's because only the people who know _you_ best can say that, people like _me_. That kid would never willingly allow himself to be under anyone's shadow ever again, especially after he finally managed to crawl out of yours." Shrugging he added, "So he did the only smart thing he could think of at the time. And you know the saying: if you can't beat em, join em." His voice heavy with dark mirth he breathed, "And in Robin's case if you can't join them, _axe_ them."

"My suspicions were confirmed the other night when I found dear old Robin and my little Harl having a disagreement." Joker continued, "Now normally the only one who gets to use Harley as a punching bag is _me_, but the kid was on such a roll I just didn't have the heart to stop him. So I listened in on their little heart to heart and then I followed the brat straight to Jump City's PD. Have to hand it to the kid, he's a natural. Robbie snuck in right through the front door in broad day light and completely ransacked the joint; the cops never saw what hit them."

"Why?" The Cape Crusader muttered, "What was Robin looking for at the police department?"

"Now that's just the darnedest thing!" Joker said slapping his knee, "I didn't get the chance to peek. But if I had to guess it probably had something to do with finding a way to make sure Slade and yours truly flew off to Saint Peter with the rest of the idiot masses tomorrow."

"You mean, h-he was trying to find a way to kill you Puddin?" Harley asked helplessly.

"'Fraid so, doll-face." Her clown prince nodded.

Slapping a hand across her forehead in exasperation Harley felt like she had been hit with a truck oozing guilt, "Oy, and here I was the one who gave him the idea to swipe toys from City Hall in the first place. I'm so sorry, Mr. J!"

"Tut tut, don't feel bad, Harl." Joker replied. "An honest mistake. Heck most of the people who meet me try to kill me, it could have happened to anyone."

"Glad you're taking it so well, Joker." Batman scoffed.

Patting his chest with pride Joker shrugged, "Well it's all par for the course, man. These things happen when you have this nature immunity to poisons, toxins, and the pain and suffering of others."

Going back to square one Batman took a batarang out for precautionary measures. "So you continued to go along with it despite knowing that Robin was trying to kill you?" He deduced. "You're giving yourself one heck of handicap this time Joker, especially if you plan on winning this game."

"Quite the contrary Bats!" Joker exclaimed, "Oh sure I value my keister as much as the next psychopath, but this game is building up to be so much fun I almost don't care about winning or losing anymore." Pausing he replied, "And not to join the ranks of the overbearing old farts that already overcrowd the kid but I have to admit I'm almost," Clutching his cheek he let out a mock gasp, "Dare I say it, proud of the little snot? He's quite ruthless, heck a nut after my own heart."

Batman's silence only fueled the Clown Prince of Gotham's elation at the situation. And whatever was going on in that head of his, Batman wasn't sharing with the class. So Joker would have to provide the narration for the both of them. A task he was more than happy to indulge in.

"So now here's the million dollar question Batman," Joker asked dramatically, "Just what is our young fledglings' _real_ master plan?"

Sauntering a few steps forward he drawled, "You know even I can't guess that one. We all know knocking off Slade and yours truly here is on the laundry list but what then? Is he going to continue with the original plan and give three cities the biggest light show of their lives?" His tone getting sweet and high he forced back a sob, "Or is there still some shred of humanity left in that meat locker he considers a heart these days?"

Savoring each word, each syllable that past his lips, Joker sickly saved the best question for last, "And more importantly what _will_ the Grim Dark Avenger do with the kid when he gets there?"

"After all, you can't deny that maybe _some_ of this," Coughing into his fist the Clown Prince of Crime wheezed, "Actually _most_ of this is _your_ fault. Miracle Pill or no the blame can't all lie in our own fiendish hands now can it?" Taking a another step into Batman's personal space he pressed a bony finger into the Dark Knight's breastplate, "Heck the kid gets a "whoopee" for not cracking sooner!" Slapping his forehead in exasperation he asked, "I mean what were you thinking, man? Dragging a minor through the streets of Gotham on so many a school night, oh for shame! And just how many cracked ribs, broken bones, gun shot wounds, and smacks to the noodle can one kid take? Lord knows I've supplied him with more than a fair share and I'm just one clown." Joker chuckled.

"All for your greater good? For your mission, Batsy?"

Shaking his head in disgust he muttered, "Now just what kind of a _weirdo_ are you?"

It was then that Batman saw the barrel of the semi-automatic gun hidden casually behind the light panels and spare sandbags.

Shrugging good naturedly as he picked up his hidden toy Joker sighed, "Oh, but who am I judge someone on parenting tips? So enough about the kid. Because tonight is supposed to be _our_ night. And Batman, they're playing our song!"

As the pale white faced hyena with the M-16 loaded a fresh clip, Batman came to a sad realization.

Fate is a funny thing.

It swells up like raging waters, ones that we are forced to travel.

It provides no exit.

No deviation.

It drops us in a bottomless ocean and compels us...

We either swim... or drown.

And sometimes as we struggle against the tide, a great truth arises as we lose the things we cherished...

We've been here before.

To be continued...


	28. The Thin Veil

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 28: The Thin Veil

_"In everything that can be called art there is a quality of redemption. It may be pure tragedy, if it is high tragedy, and it may be pity and irony, and it may be the raucous laughter of the strong man. But down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective in this kind of story must be such a man. He is the hero; he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. And if there were enough like him, the world would be a very safe place to live in, without becoming too dull to be worth living in."_

_Raymond Chandler_

The two birds that resided in Titans Tower never talked much about themselves.

It was one of the unspoken agreements they shared after the mind link that had been forced onto them when Slade's mask had nearly catapulted Robin into a psychotic episode. Though Raven had never seen the entire story through the visions that had entered her that day she had seen enough to explain in part why the Boy Wonder was the way he was.

In those short seconds Raven witnessed first hand as the fingers of Robin's mother slipped forever out of his reach in a jumbled mess of broken cable and a single falling trapeze. Through the eyes of the then small boy she lived those agonizing moments as her own; watching as the child scrambled to the podium ledge only to bear witness as his parents plummeted from the heights of the circus tent and landed on the cold floor with an all too sickening thud.

Feeling every ounce of his pain as he screamed with a terror few can truly understand.

Because once you encounter death, you cannot remain unchanged by it. Long after you refill the emptied vessel with noise and chaos, it consumes you and infects you like a disease that you never truly recover from. There is truth to the saying that when you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you. And unless you're stone, it changes you.

It has to.

And Robin was not stone. He had never wanted to be stone. Unlike Batman he had never tried to block out the rest of the world nor had he ever wanted to hide from it.

So there would be no grieving for Dick Grayson the way Bruce had mourned his parents. After encountering Tony Zucco for the second time Robin swore that he would spend no more time lost wishing that he could change the events that had happened to him. There would only be a promise. A promise to help rid the city of the evil that had taken the lives of those he loved.

He was different from Batman.

So what if bats needed the night and craved the darkness within it. He was a robin and as such he belonged in the light.

Still out of all the people in his new life, maybe it was for the best that Raven was the only one he allowed to understand that. And there were few people in the known universe that were as world-weary as she was. So he was pretty confident she was someone he could trust his secrets with.

That's how it stayed.

Save maybe for the time he had been forced to explain his actions to the Titans over his obsession with Slade at the end of his incarceration as the madman's apprentice.

"I'm sorry for all the lies and the deceit." Was all the boy had been able to offer, "But there are just some things you can't ask me to apologize for. Things that I won't stop. That I can't stop. And if the opportunity rises, I'll probably just end up doing those things again."

He had said all this with his back to them, pretending to just be callous and indifferent so they wouldn't see the darkness etched on his face. By staring out the window it was so much easier to burn a hole in blank scenery than have to look them in the eye and face up to everything he had put them through.

"Dude, we're just happy to have you back in one piece. But after all that just happened how can you still say things like that?" Beast Boy could only gawk.

Still not looking at them, Robin hung his head knowing that they deserved more out of him than a simple sorry.

So he decided to give them the only answer he could.

Trying to find the strength to form air into words what came out was surprisingly more honest than Robin thought himself capable of at least when it involved himself:

"My father and mother were murdered because of someone who thought exactly the same way Slade did. Someone who felt that success is the only judge of right and wrong. No matter how many lives are ruined along the way."

It sounded so practiced, so plain that if the Titan's hadn't known Robin better they could have swore he was simply talking about someone else's pain.

"I've spent most of my life trying to stop that criminal, regardless of the forms or faces he wears. The form is of no consequence anymore. It stopped being a person years ago. But I'll never stop chasing the ghost of what he stands for." Feeling the silence in the room since that was the first and **last** time they would ever hear something so personal come out of his mouth, Robin folded his arms and turned away from the window.

"That's what I would have said three years ago when Batman was the only person I ever had to answer to. But I'm a Titan now, and as a part of your team I don't get to justify what I did that easily." Running a gloved hand through his hair he muttered, "Look this life, this training has shaped and influenced most of our childhood in ways that neither Batman or the Justice League can ever understand. We Titans aren't just about a promise to the world and the people in it, it's also about a promise to each other … to ourselves. We swore on our childhood nightmares that we'd be there for one another. If I don't honor that I don't honor who I am. That's what it means to be a Titan... so I promise I'll never lie to you again. I'll never take that trust for granted again." Eyes hardening he quivered, "But there are still going to be things I won't apologize for."

"Because there will probably be a time again when I **have** to cross that line... and when that happens all I can hope is that how you guys feel about me won't change-"

Letting out an over-exasperated sigh the oldest Titan was the first one to move as he cleared the room and towered over his smaller comrade for a moment.

"Shut up already, Rob." Cyborg replied slapping the Boy Wonder out of his melancholy and nearly sending him through the window with the force behind his cybernetic hand, "We get it." Was all the older boy could offer giving his friend a toothy grin, "Nothing'll change." He reassured placing that said hand back on their leader's shoulder, "If we haven't gotten sick of you by now it's not going to happen. But just remember that the day you do cross a line like this again, all four of us are taking it out on your scrawny hide afterwards."

A small stern smile peaking through his lips Robin would never tell them how much those words had meant to him. Instead the Boy Wonder had only been able to mumble the word "deal" back in quiet reply.

(Titan's Tower – Present Day)

And then there were three.

With the other Titans disarmed and heavily induced with the contents of Robin's silver flasks the boy casually began to make his way towards Titan's Tower to eliminate the one Titan that was still in top fighting capacity.

Raven.

"Having some trouble with the little lady, Boss?" Robin asked casually as he watched the fireworks from the safety of one of the barrels of a Lexcorp cannon. To make it even better Slade had almost tried to bark out an order in response only to have whatever he had wanted to say cut off as he was nearly decapitated. Twisting at a 120 degree angle Slade propelled his body in a masterful bit of evasion before he skidded to a stop just out of the monster's reach.

But that time one of Raven's tentacles had gotten dangerous lucky to hitting its target.

And it was clear that all his little march towards Titan's Tower had done was leave the villain with a severe lacking surplus of robot minions.

Slade was right where he started.

Picking up a drone as to offer the assassin a silent warning; one of Raven's tentacles snapped the body cleanly in half to show him what she was planning to do with him if he got any closer. Before she finished by chucking the dismembered robot full force at the two onlookers. It only made a small dent in the cannon Robin was squatting on thanks to the reinforced alloy but he couldn't help but let out a impressed whistle at the force behind it.

The robot looked like little more than a smashed sardine can now.

"You really got on her bad side quick." The former Teen Wonder all but applauded as the half-demon glared at him. There was nothing but pure unadulterated malice in those glowing red eyes.

Raven was in rare form today.

In fact she was down right terrifying.

Lips curling in a style similar to the mad clown who had recently become his mentor Robin chided,"You must really be a hit with the girls huh, Slade?"

Smiling thinly through the mask Slade excused his apprentice's loose tongue for the time being and mused, "Of course she's upset with me, Robin. After all most illusions die harder than people do. And that girl is still clinging to your ghost. "

Kicking his feet up from under him and barrel rolling in a very acrobatic but completely over theatrical sweep, Robin was off the hull of the cannon and by Slade's side. "Then maybe that can work to our advantage." He offered giving his master a rakish smile as he fingered his chin. "I have an idea. Would it cripple your honor as a criminal mastermind if I offered to cut in?"

"If you insist." Slade said dryly, trying to hide his mild amusement at the boy's almost comical approach to the situation. After all this bombardment was really just for his apprentice's sake; it was his party and his alone. Now that Slade had what he had always wanted the Titans held little value to him. If he had wanted to, a mere push of a button was all it would take to finish the job they had started with the Titan's beloved Tower. Instead he was content to watch his apprentice hunt down each of his former friends individually, relishing in the boy's own joy as he fought with them, injured them, toyed with them and then would ultimately destroy them.

And so far his little monster had not disappointed him.

Stepping out onto the small island mouth that linked Robin to the entrance and the oncoming fury the boy shielded his eyes with a hand as a thousand short-circuiting wires crackled in his eyes and ears as the area became choked with more and more of the robotic corpses of Slade-bots.

The way Raven was protecting the entrance was to be commended after all. Hell it was downright Spartan.

But it didn't take long for Robin to find his opening.

Using a freshly short-circuiting Slade-bot as a springboard just before he got a little too close to the imposing black abyss; Robin used the plummeting robotic form to give himself just enough leverage to catapult towards darkness' center.

Only a truly demented person would plunge towards the center of the leviathan. But by twisting around the demonic octopus-like tentacles the youth pushed himself over the first wave of her demonic energy and planned to tackle the problem at it's source.

And Robin had reached a new level of fighting in the week since his madness. Feats that would have taken a genius years to perfect, he had all but surpassed. Now his body contorted in ways seemingly inhuman.

Slade knew that he now truly had a apprentice worthy of himself.

For Robin had always had his acrobatic skill in the past, favoring agility and quick handiness over physical strength. He had become unrivaled in his ability to take on foes easily three or four times his own size, utilizing their strength and turning it against them. A skill he had perfected in his years as the right hand man of the World's Greatest Detective. And with that knowledge and the budding hard physique of a young man who had spent half a lifetime indulging himself in rigorous training and developing a downright obsession for the martial artists, Robin was a perfect prodigy to be molded in the art of murder.

But all those skills now paled in the shadow of Robin's sudden insanity and the lack of fear that freed him from all human limitations.

His apprentice had become practically untouchable.

To Raven on the other side however Robin was moving so fast that she could barely follow him with her eyes. He was more like a bullet than a person, flipping and twisting and darting in and out of the dark abyss as if they were both simply rehearsing the steps to a dance.

Then all too strangely time instantaneously stood still.

Just like that Robin was almost of top of her and Raven knew all too well that in a contest of who could react faster in close combat that the Boy Wonder would almost always be the winner. Closing her eyes she recoiled and waited for his incoming blow to come. She could only hope that the force of her mind attack would be enough to damage him afterwards.

But the strike never came.

Instead of feeling the sting of a metal staff or a iron tipped boot shot into her ribs Raven's former leader simply reached for her hand, his arms outstretched as if to save her from her own darkness.

And just before the onslaught of her demonic energy threatened to render him limb from limb he caught one of her arms, yanking her forward and clumsily pulling her into his arms. Embracing her with such awkward intensity he was practically smothering her, Raven could only gasp as the snarling demon of her darker form was quelled by shock and the sudden touch of his skin.

"Ro...bin-" Raven choked, words seemingly foreign and strange on her lips as she battled the daze her darker side had momentarily left her in.

"Why are you always doing this?" Robin said quietly, taking his token leadership tone as if was scolding her. "Why do you always have to protect us even at the cost of hurting yourself like this?"

His breath soft and warm against her ear as he gingerly put a hand on head, inching her closer to him.

Raven couldn't see his eyes... and she couldn't find her voice as she was all but pressed against his chest. So close that she could hear his heartbeat even from underneath all that armor. And for someone as unused to being physically touched as she was; it was taking most of her willpower not to shatter every window in Jump City.

Despite every ounce of her common sense screaming to her to run, to crush him into the ground, to render him incapable of movement she found herself momentarily frozen.

They still had to finish the mission Cyborg had asked them to carry out. After all besides Robin there was still an army of tin men behind her; all equipped with enough advanced weaponry to fill an armory.

Raven had to protect their home from this psychopath.

So why couldn't she move?

Probably because he sounded exactly the same... as if he had never left. He still had that same husky tenor, the one that she had learned to trust more than anything else in this world.

Why did this monster have to sound so much like her best friend?

"You did well, Raven. You tried so hard to protect our home." The Titan's leader said softly his voice filled with quiet pride. "But... now you don't have to fight anymore."

Raven had to focus.

So what if he was so warm, so real to the touch and every other sense... it wasn't really him. Underneath all that his heart was still frozen.

Even tangled in her arms the Robin she knew was still so far away.

Sensing her apprehension Robin knew it that if he was going to act he would have to do it soon. Because girls like Raven wouldn't exactly let him keep holding her forever.

"I'm sorry it has to come to this," Robin whispered as his hand moved and a glint of sliver shot out from the corner of her eye.

Slamming the syringe down towards her neck Robin pressed his thumb down on the plunger.

But his hand never made it to her throat.

Instantly encircled in the black void of Raven's magic, Robin's arm was swallowed up from the shoulder to his wrist rendering him incapacitated as the crushing raw power behind her attack held him like a vice.

But even though she had caught him, Raven knew she couldn't relax. After all she had been aiming to ensnare his whole body. The fact that she had barely been able to catch his arm was enough to pull her into a cold sweat.

He had reflexes that easily matched Slade's at this point.

It was silent for a moment, the two just staring at each other before Robin broke it by letting out a playful chuckle. And just like that the false gentleness faded from his voice all too quickly. "I didn't think you'd fall for that the way the others did." He mused.

Eyes burning with a frigid darkness that threatened to freeze her to where she stood Robin's nose crinkled in delight as he looked over the handiwork of the powers that held his hand fast, "The others were still clinging to the old me, convinced that if they just tried hard enough to make me see what I was doing that they'd be able to save me. But you know better, don't you Raven? You've always known me better than anybody else. That's because a monster can always guess what other monsters are thinking."

Glaring at him Raven didn't reply.

"Uh oh, the silent treatment huh?" Robin replied with a cocky grin that made him look as debonaire as it did evil. "Man, you always do this. All those powers and abilities to know what everyone else is feeling and yet the moment anyone asks you what's rolling around in your own skull you clam up tighter than a drum." Clicking his tongue and then waggling a finger on his free hand for good measure the boy jilted, "That's a double standard wouldn't you say?"

"I'm _not_ a monster." Raven practically seethed, teeth and knuckles clenched as she realized how much her captive seemed to be enjoying this. But then if anyone knew exactly which buttons to press, it _was_ him.

"Course not. You're just the daughter of a demon, trying to live life like a saint." Robin countered. "But Tomato, Tomatoe. Demon. Hero. Vigilante. Mad Man. They're just names right? All that matters to me is that you're the only real challenge I have left here. Everyone else was just too soft. But not you Raven, you're far too damaged to ever believe in happily ever afters. And that's why this is going to be fun-"

Instantly clearing the distance between the two, Robin roughly grabbed the collar of her cape with his free hand and proceeded to haul her up as if she weighed little more than a rag dag.

"I'm really hoping you can give me a better workout then our other friends did." The boy breathed just before his head connected with hers. Bludgeoning her face with the top of his skull he jutted her backwards so he could make use of the force of the headbutt to deliver a well placed punch into her solar plexus, connecting into the soft organs that lay just underneath it.

If almost breaking the girl's nose wasn't motivation enough to release him from her powers, the damage to her insides did the trick. Unable to hold him Raven collapsed in a bundle on to the dirt.

Newly freed from her lock Robin shook his wrist a few times to get the blood flowing back in its veins; she had really been holding on to him with everything she had. And as he watched the half demon struggle to pull herself up from her crumbled position on the floor, coughing and hacking at the blood that poured from her nose and mouth Robin had to admit that maybe that had been a cheap shot.

Well it would have been, _if_ he had been fighting anyone else but Raven.

So what if she was a girl and supposedly his friend? There could be no mercy in a game like this.

Not to mention his paled skinned friend had the potential deep inside her to battle dark lords on a equal playing field. While he was just your average crazy person in Kevlar who was good at fighting dirty when there was a need for it.

It didn't take a genius to figure out who had the upper hand in this fight if she ever decided to get serious.

"You're not doing a very good job so far of keeping up, Rae. You sure you want to keep going?" Robin asked coming behind and forcing her to a half sitting position, locking her firmly in a choke hold.

"Well something tells me I doubt you'd let me walk away if I just said 'Uncle'," Raven all but spat, her anger blocking out most of the radiating pain that came with the force his arms were having clamped down on the empath's pale neck like he was.

That damn silver syringe was back in his other hand again, and this time Raven doubted she'd be able to stop him like the first time. Flinching she all but waited for his strike when his grip on her relaxed ever so slightly.

Something was amiss here. And even though she wanted to pass out from the pain alone she could mentally feel his shift, as if he was stalling because of some unseen presence.

Robin's hand was even now pressed to her carotid artery; but while it hurt he wasn't putting enough force on it to cripple her.

All too quickly Raven realized why Robin had been hesitating.

Filling the void where there had been nothing only an instant before was ever imposing figure of Slade.

But this wasn't the visage of a mentor who had come closer merely to watch the progress of his protege. Instead the orange clad assassin's shoulders were stiff and his stance rigid, as if he had just set his sight on new prey.

In the assassin's hand was one Lexicorp's new toys; only the safety on the gun had been switched off, the barrel was slightly cocked and the red glowing sight scope was now aimed perfectly at it's target.

Which was right at his young apprentice's jugular.

Eyes narrowing Robin realized where his master was pointing almost at the same time she did; because without any further warning Slade simply opened fire.

The former Titan barely had an instant to think before he hauled Raven and himself out of the line of fire, instinctively using his own body as a shield against the scattered debris as the laser made contact with the ground and set the earth and everything around it ablaze.

Dust in their eyes and hair, the two Titans could barely hold back the muffled coughs and gags as they scrambled to their feet before the mercenary had a chance to reload.

"Where the hell were you aiming, Slade?" Robin snarled once he had regained his footing, "And since when are you such a lousy shot? "

"Those syringes." Slade said cryptically, talking almost as if he merely having a conservation with himself. He sauntered forward, unassuming and relaxed as he took a few steps towards Robin only to stop just short of the object in question. Realizing that he had accidentally dropped the syringe during the commotion of Slade's first shot there was little Robin could do but glare at him.

"A very unusual weapon to bring to a siege, Robin." Slade commented with a cheery smile; even though the glint in his good eye was downright dangerous. "A little amateur for you, wouldn't you say? Forcing you to get in close range to your target, making physical contact with the enemy despite the risk of personal injury." Picking up the silver ample he examined the contents for a few moments and when he found them to be unfamiliar Slade simply let it drop back onto the ground.

"All for this little needle? It seems rather impractical when one considers this is a war." He stated not waiting for a response from his young apprentice before using his boot to swiftly crush the glass vial. His single eye watching in silent rage as the liquid spilled out onto the black earth and lightly stained his feet.

"Which makes me all the more curious as to what exactly you're up to..."

Bringing a hand to his chin the assassin shook his head, the mild disappointment obvious from his body language alone. "Perhaps we need to reopen our little discussion from the other night, my young apprentice."Lowering the barrel of the gun towards Robin's head he asked, "Are you finally going to tell me what you've been plotting all this time? Or do you need another lesson in respecting your elders first?"

Smirking at his master's obvious challenge Robin took a second to wipe a dark smudge of charcoal embers off his scuffed up face before he took up a defensive stance. "Where's your sense of showmanship boss? If I tell you it'll just ruin the surprise."

"There you go again, Robin." Slade murmured throwing his shoulders back in mock exasperation, "You know I'd almost appreciate that sharp tongue of yours if meant I didn't have to keep beating respect into you."

"What can I say? Guess I've just always been chatty." The Teen Wonder replied with a shrug, "It's part of my charm." Stepping over Raven's spilled out cape, Robin quickly threw her a cold glare making it obvious he was wondering what she was still doing there.

Disregarded and suddenly the third wheel to a party neither madman was willing to include her in the dark empath now found herself as important to either of them as newly laid out trash.

But in the eyes of the insane boy inches away from her, it was understandable. After all the youth had found a much better opponent to play with in Slade. There were no times for kid's in costumes when the living embodiment of a cockroach on steroids was trying to pick a fight with the Teen Wonder instead.

So Raven could only stare at the sight before her and at the silver pool several yards in front of her and wonder how on earth that little object had so quickly changed the course of events. Even her empathic powers couldn't help her piece together exactly what was going on between the two madmen at the front and back of her.

What Robin said next didn't help much either.

"That Tower isn't going to stay standing for long, Rae." He said with teasing eyes and a matching smile. "And the cannons are already programmed with a detonation sequence. Do you really have time to be sitting there getting close and personal with the dirt?"

"But why are you telling me this-?" Raven couldn't help but stammer.

Throwing her an over the shoulder glance for just an instant, the insane glow in Robin's eyes softened and he just smiled.

That was the only hint he would give her before the youth lept over her and immediately rushed Slade with everything he had.

And two new battle cries were erupting through the barren wasteland that had once been Titan's island, though Raven could barely hear them as their bloody battle raged.

Though nothing really had changed in that instant he had turned to her, she had witnessed the smile of someone she had almost considered dead. And it had belonged to a person that had once made the Titan's believe that they could fight their way out of hell and win.

The boy before her was ruthless, dangerous, and he had lost all ability to empathize with pain and emotion.

But Robin, _their_ Robin was still in there somewhere, trapped underneath this lunatic.

And in that instant the same horrible thought that Batman had come upon washed over Raven like rancid milk, making her instantly feel sick to her stomach when she realized what it could mean. Finally the secret to the pulsating goop that was crushed underneath Slade's feet was starting to make some sense.

Only now it was starting to look like it was too late to matter.

To be continued...


	29. No One Mourns the Wicked

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 29: No One Mourns the Wicked

**Author's Rantings: Lots of technical jargon in this chapter mostly revolving on how the technology around certain things work. It's not spectacularly awesome. But even in a comic book/ cartoon universe I like to try explain things through logical application. I personally feel that nothing insults the readers quite like trying to pull out a bunch of plot solving acorns by saying things just magically happen without giving people a proper explanation. So I hope you'll excuse the bouts of Professor Science that are saturating this chapter. It just had to be done folks.**

- The Abandoned Factory-

(11 Hours Before Doomsday)

"So what were you really doing to Slade's computer the night I followed you, Robin?" Rose had asked the youth as she was carried back to her room so many nights earlier.

The white haired girl had only half expected him to bother answering her but surprisingly Robin no longer seemed to have any restraints towards keeping secrets from her.

His explanation came all too easily.

"It's a long and boring story, kiddo." He warned her with a thin smile as he laid her out on one of the worker cots. "Sure you really want to hear it?"

Smiling rather deviously herself Rose pushed a piece of white hair behind her ear, "Are you saying I wouldn't be able to keep up?" She teased.

Glancing sideways at her Robin shook his head, "No. I know first hand what it feels like to have people talk down to you just because you're a kid. And I'm not about to return that favor."

Scooting closer to the boy by her bedside Rose patted the area beside her and motioned for him to sit.

"This story is really about a man," Robin said casually taking her lead and plopping down beside her, "A scientist named Niles Caulder. Brilliant. Eccentric. And without him nanotechnology probably wouldn't be what it is today. Niles had a personality problem though. See for all that genius he was a really _bad_ man at heart. Helping the masses and getting a shot at the Nobel Peace Prize just wasn't enough for him. Instead he used nanotechnology to make a bomb that almost destroyed the world." Over embellishing the drama in this next part Robin inched closer, "But just before his evil plan could be unleashed on the world he was intercepted by the Justice League." Flattening his palm to mimic Superman he slammed it into his fist and made some sound effects, "The crisis averted his monstrous plan was stopped and the League made sure that he was put away for his crimes so he could never hurt the innocent again."

Pausing for a moment the fairy tail began to take a different turn, "But the heroes didn't bother keeping track of him once he was behind bars. And Caulder only wound up staying there for a year before he was spirited away to some work labor program that Lex Luthor was funding. After that he disappeared off the grid, and hasn't been heard from or seen since." Folding his arms together Robin was silent for a few seconds. The look of a hardened detective taking the place of the carefree teenager beside her.

"For a lot of people the story should have ended there." Robin explained, "Except Niles Caulder had a partner. And it's the partner that I'm interested in, Rose. Because this man's considered even more of a genius than Caulder ever was. You could probably go so far to say that he was the real _brains_ behind Caulder's research."

As if amused by a joke only he could truly appreciate he chuckled, "He was so smart in fact Caulder went nuts with jealousy... and well, he killed the guy."

Pausing Robin glanced down at the little girl.

"Only here's the thing, Rose. Caulder's partner didn't _stay_ dead."

Folding his hands together and resting his chin on them Robin was dead serious, "The man lost his head and most of his other body parts but he still wouldn't _die_. No matter what Caulder did to him his brain lived on." Leaning back on the bed he muttered, "As a twisted, hollow shell kept alive only by donning a electronic body the man stopped being human and decided to embrace it's new horrible existence as a brain. Vowing to the lash out against the world that denied him even death that person became known simply as _Brain_**. **And half a year ago he was the same criminal genius that the Titans took down when we fought against the Brotherhood of Evil."

"So that's why you went to Jump City's Evidence Locker." Rose reasoned the pieces finally starting to make some sense. "If Caulder murdered the Brain so he could take credit for his research than Brain was probably the original creator of CP9. After all if anyone knows this disease better than Slade does... it would be the man who created it."

Scowling Robin's teeth clenched, "Slade was able to manipulate me the last time because he always seems to be three steps ahead of me, no matter what I try to do to get the edge on him. But this time I know something he doesn't... and if I want to beat him I have to learn to play like him."

-Titan's Tower-

(Present Day, West Side of the Island)

Rose was far enough away from the carnage that she could no longer see Robin or Slade but she could still hear their battle cries as they tore up what little of the landscape remained. Staring at the silver syringe in her hand it was still so hard to believe that this little vial had so much power behind it.

When CP9 was first developed by Lexcorp scientists it was originally a biological weapon that controlled the cell using protein strands. When diseases use a protein strand this enables the virus to change environment easier than most other methods and makes it that much deadlier as it can virtually go from being a liquid to a airborne disease instantaneously. In CP9's case the virus makes contact with a cell's membrane, then inserts its genetic coding into the cell. The cell absorbs the viral genome into its own genetic make-up, which takes over the cell's functions as it kills and replaces mitochondrial organelles with a replica of itself.

Slade had to make a deadly super plague even worse by turning a single component system into three components by adding nanochips into the disease's substructure.

By inserting nanotechnology he became able to personally target what parts of the brain would be effected by the virus. With this technology at his hands how the user dictates the damage to the brain and other organs in the body is practically limitless.

But nanotechnology isn't perfect. While it has evolved in the recent market, almost all forms of the technology still rely on silicon coating.

Silicon has oxygen ions, giving it the electrical charge that can force it to be accelerated to high speeds. Once implanted, ions in a nanochips must be activated or given the energy they need to incorporate themselves into the crystal lattice. Activation requires heating the silicon, which often has the unfortunate consequence of causing the arsenic and boron to diffuse downward.

And that's where these little silver flasks came in, filled to the brim with ionic neutralizers.

Which was as destructive to silicon as kryptonite is to Superman.

Because ionic neutralizers are often used as a fail safe for when technology gets out of control. Inserting them will force a system to immediately short circuit the ions necessary for the silicon to activate. Shoot this into any computer and it'll render a nanochip worthless in a matter of seconds.

Meaning that if the nanochips in CP9 can't function correctly then they can't release the deadly chemicals; forcing the disease to lie dormant. So while the chemicals and the technology are still there on a cellular level the damaged nanochips can't release themselves into the brain tissue.

And that was the motive Batman and Raven had slipped upon.

Robin wasn't injecting the victims of his booster shots with the plague... he was buying the Titans time.

By supplying them with temporary immunity to the disease in case the bio-weapons were detonated.

Which if all went according to plan... they would be.

So under his instructions Rose had hammed it up the best she could for the pretty alien called Starfire; making sure to paint herself into a half crazed maniac with a deep resentment for the half brother she didn't even really know. She had even tried to make it look like she wanted to kill Joey, only to have Robin "stop" her at just the right moment.

Because the reality of the world was that in most cases fear was stronger than love. No matter how much people supposedly trust one another in the end it's easier to think the worst about each other.

Robin was already crazy.

Which made it all that much easier to make the Titans think of Robin as just another enemy.

-Titan's Tower-

(Front Entrance)

"_You always need a plan, Dick." _

_His father had playfully pinched Robin's nose before kneeling down to scold the acrobat in training. After all he had to remind his over-zealous son that their was a price to pay for any performer trying bite off more than they could chew. Aerialists rarely got second chances to laugh in Death's face. His large hand practically encompassing the mess of black hair on his young son's head John Grayson smiled,"It's not the next bar, kiddo." Pointing out across the open tent he explained, "It's the bar after that and the one after that. And so on to the other side. Never forget to always keep looking ahead." Winking his dad finished, "Distance is just a state of mind, as long as you make sure you never lose sight of what's in front of you."_

As Robin threw a hand up to block Slade's hook punch from smashing into the side of his skull he vaguely remembered his father's words.

He _had_ lost sight of things.

But what could he do?

Most people can only look away from their future when faced with their own mistakes.

Dick Grayson couldn't allow himself to do that.

Power was all he could understand now. All he was capable of. And power is merely the faculty to act.

The only thing he knew how to do anymore was just keep moving.

Biting back a silent stifle of pain as Slade tried that same hit on the other side, Robin tried to shake off the surging ache in his hand as he caught it before it connected. Street fighters without experience could use those circular strikes to deliver one hit knock outs. In Slade's hands a little thing like a hook punch could easily leave the person on the receiving end without a pulse.

His master wasn't holding back at all this time.

And this was Slade... formerly Deathstroke the Terminator (though he had dropped that alias when moving to Jump City); a man who had on several occasions repeatedly taken on whole super-teams by himself. The assassin was practically Batman's equal as far as martial arts went, several weight classes above Robin, and he had all but grappled a gorilla (BB at the time) and won.

The Teen Wonder might as well have been fighting Bane as far as the difference in strength was concerned... and the whole situation felt about as comforting as bringing a knife to a gunfight.

But Robin had spent a life time learning how to turn the tables on people bigger than him. And close quarter combat was any man's game.

So for now he had to make sure to keep target strikes low and his movements grounded. For every attack the assassin threw at him Robin made sure to work some nasty blows of his own into the man's shins and kneecaps. A single blow in itself was nothing the villain couldn't shake off; but if Robin just kept at it sooner or later one of those tendons was going to snap.

And then he'd have his chance.

Breaking out of the scattered debris Robin delivered a well placed side swipe to the back of Slade's inner leg and found his window of attack. It should have gone off without a hitch. The boy managed the perfect gainer setup, tucking forward hard and twisting sideways into Slade's blind spot so he could push off with his legs and all but take off the assassin's head with a cradle blow.

But for all that new found freedom the loss of his emotions had brought him, something just went wrong.

He aimed just a fraction of an inch too high and Slade was all too quick to make sure the boy remembered his mistake. Catching Robin's leg at the thigh the larger man all but picked the teenager up with his enormous upper body strength before catapulting the boy's body into the ground.

The assassin quickly finished this by blindsiding Robin across the face with the barrel of his gun; to make certain his little apprentice wouldn't be getting up until they had a chance to _chat._

Pain seering across his forehead as the metal connected with his skull Robin found insides churning and his vision instantly blurred as he was shoved face first back into the mix of dirt and a newly forming pool of his own blood.

"That was a rather dirty shot. You could have ruptured my trachea if you hadn't missed." Slade scolded as he ground a muddy boot tip into the boy's shoulder, "I underestimated you once before, my young apprentice. But you'll find I don't make the same mistakes twice." Shooting a blow into the boy's ribs with his other boot Slade all but purred, "However that doesn't change the fact that you're a very _ungrateful_ boy, Robin."

Silence.

But the boy's burning blue eyes were glowing to the point that they were practically scalding the other villain. Even squashed under the pressure of the man's crushing weight Robin was defying Slade with every breath. Blood was pouring down an open gash just above the young man's right eye where Slade's gun had connected with his head, and several ugly bruises were tinting blue on his chin. But the gashes and blisters couldn't wash away the boy's smile and Robin wasn't acting much like a victim.

No matter how many times Slade slammed his foot into his gut.

"You know I'm getting rather weary of this childish need you have to rebel." Slade's muttered his suave voice dangerously close to losing it's even tone. Grabbing a hold of a dark patch of his apprentice's black hair he slammed the boy's face further into the dirt. "Sooner or later, young man you _will_ see things my way. It's an inevitability. Even if it means I have to beat you within a inch of your miserable life." When the boy didn't answer for a second time Slade rolled the child's arm away, making sure all his motivation hadn't prematurely knocked the teenager unconscious. "Are you still listening, Robin?"

Letting out a pained laugh Robin fought to get one of his hands under himself so he could at least lift his bloody face up off the dirt. Giving his master a grin despite the dirt and blood gritted in his teeth Robin answered,"Don't worry I'm listening, Slade. And when I say I'm listening, I'm also thinking about killing you."

"Kill me will you?" Slade repeated with a thin smile, "Oh Robin, that endless ambition of yours is the one thing I truly like about you. It's a quality any teacher would be proud to have in his student."

"I've had a _better_ teacher." Robin countered from underneath the man.

Getting shot by Two Face in his earlier years as Robin, Dick had learned that the key rule to winning a ground fight was to get back up.

Don't stay there. Because your feet are your salvation.

And dying on your back is a lousy way to go.

Since his shoulder was locked under Slade's weight however, Robin had a pretty limited range of motion. Which left the boy with few options other than to use his other arm to sweep Slade's leg out from under him even if he risked breaking it in the process.

Sliding one of the lock picks from his glove, Robin aimed for the man's ankle and proceeded to stab him in the ligaments just above Slade's Achilles tendon.

There was a lot of leather and rubber to go through to make it to any real flesh but Robin was counting on his pick's needle like sharpness to at least hit Slade hard enough to give him a temporary loss of balance.

Blood and angry profanity's shooting out of the villain the instant it connected, Robin's losing streak seemed to be over as Slade's immediately raised his foot off the young man just long enough for the boy to roll to the side and vault back on to his feet.

Though both parties now found themselves in a temporary stalemate.

Ignoring the blood oozing out of the ruptured wound just above his ankle Slade's tried to reestablish the upper hand by keeping his voice debonaire and even, "Answer one thing for me, Robin." Giving the boy a hard look he asked, "This can't possibly be because you still have lingering _emotions_ left over for your little friends now?"

Wiping the blood and dirt out of eye with his sleeve Robin shrugged,"No. Going insane just really brought out my petty side. I finally realized the other day just how much I like winning. And I _really_ like winning, Slade."

Through with the games Robin pulled a small device out his seemingly endless inventory of toys as if to offer his master a immediate checkmate.

Cylinder in shape it appeared to be a remote detonator. Almost identical to the one Slade himself had fashioned for the impact sensor wired to the lair's super computer.

"Looks familiar doesn't it?" Robin asked as he saw his mentor's good eye narrow into a slit. "Sorry to disappoint you, Master. But my motive for doing all this is a lot more base and lowly than out feelings for the Titans. I've learned an important lesson from you, Slade. Victory by itself just isn't enough. If you really want to win in this world then everyone _else_ has to lose."

Sauntering forward a few steps the boy explained, "I've hijacked the I/O panel of your super computer's control system and rewired all the proximity fuse mechanisms. Which means those three missiles you have back at the warehouse are now linked up to _my _target-proximity sensor. Guess that means your evil doomsday device is now _my _evil doomsday device." Pausing for effect he added, "And it's counting down as we speak."

His master was unusually silent, leaving no opportunity for insight as to what was rolling around in the assassin's head. But it gave Robin the chance to say one last thing, "All this time Slade, you only saw the monster you wanted to see. I might be insane but I'm _not_ like you."

Blue eyes burning in the empty black darkness the boy reasoned, "I'm much _worse_."

To be continued...


	30. Unwell

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 30: Unwell

**Standard Disclaimer: Still don't own the Teen Titans or the DC Animated Universe in general.  
**

-Titan's Tower-

(Entrance)

When Dick thought about it, life had always been like a detective story. It's all shadows and clues, mysteries and secrets.

And it always ends with a fall; where someone goes down and goes down _hard_.

The endings aren't always happy in these kind of stories, the money's usually bad and sometimes the dames turn out to be more trouble then they're worth.

But no matter how ugly it seems there's always something about that fall that keeps you coming back for more.

Most people think it's so appealing because it's a death wish. But Robin came to learn it's for people with a life wish. A wish for things to be as amazing as jumping out of a plane on a beautiful clear day from so high up that you feel you can almost touch the stars. And that's what he was going to do soon. Make the great leap. Touch the stars.

Fall.

Because just like he was a detective, he was also an acrobat. So let other people secretly dream of flying, for him falling had always been the best part of the show.

Clicking the switch to his detonator a few times the man once renowned as Deathstroke the Terminator paused to wait for the ear shattering explosions and the moment when the sky would erupt in white and gray; hailing the apocalypse to come.

It didn't.

"Very clever, Robin." The assassin replied as dropped his now worthless detonator to the ground. Casually giving his young apprentice a much deserved round of applause Slade noted, "It seems you've finally realized your true potential."

Taking a few steps towards the boy the mercenary paused before mentioning, "Your big reveal was rather theatrical for my tastes, however. I would have figured that a boy as smart yourself, who's spent so many years dealing with our kind and the evil monologues that come with the trade would know better than to gloat before your victory was assured."

There was very real danger burning out of his one eye as Slade reasoned, "After all you've stolen my toy, Robin. What's to keep me from stealing yours?"

"Give me some credit, _Master_." Robin answered with a smile as dark as tainted glass, "I'm following a path of obsessive behavior that was instilled in me at a _very_ early age. Being your lackey just pushed it into overdrive." With that said he casually tossed his detonator from one hand to the other, "And what makes you think my detonator is anymore real than yours? For all you know this is a decoy and I have the real one stashed somewhere safe where you and the Titans can't get it." Crossing his arms he added, "It's just like you said, Slade. I've watched other people do this stuff for a _long _time. I've learned not to make the same mistakes."

"Why Robin," Slade praised, "You've all but exceeded my expectations this time."

Shaking his head the assassin admonished, "But you'll also find you've squandered my generosity for the last time as well, young man." Aiming at the boy's head he added, "And I'm not nearly as nice a person as your previous employer."

"Please." Robin scoffed when the words nice and Batman had been applied in the same sentence, "Heroes aren't nice... they aren't kind. The only people a superhero can save are the people he sides with." His eyes hollow and soulless Robin turned to the moonless night and muttered, "Saving someone just means not saving someone else." Bo-staff in hand the Teen Wonder wasn't going down without a fight. "That's why I'm detonating the weapon, Slade. In ten minutes this world will be completely free of crime, of suffering, of frailty. Free of people like _you_."

"Oh Robin," Slade laughed, "Is that really what all this is? Killing me so you can continue to cling on to the dead ideals of heroic philosophies you no longer understand. _Pathetic_."

"No." The boy replied, "I'm not just freeing the world of creeps like you, I'm freeing it of humanity in general. Of compassion. Because this world is just one big hypocrisy. A sick twisted _joke." _Clutching his head he murmured, "I finally understand that now. The Joker was right. He was right about everything. Madness really is the emergency exit. You can just step outside, and close the door on all those horrible things that happened. You can lock them away... forever." Quiet, wistful as if he was going to cry though they both knew he was incapable of the emotion Robin choked, "Even things like love and death. It's so much easier being insane."

Knotting his fists into his black locks Robin laughed, "So what better way to do in this crazy world than with a disease. There's nothing like mass murder with disease! No soul, no art, no hypocrisy. So let's make the whole world mad, Slade. Most of us already are anyways. I mean Batman is just as crazy as everybody else... he just can't admit it. He has to keep pretending that life makes sense, that there's some point to all this struggling."

The boy was ranting at this point but it didn't seem to matter,"For so many years all I wanted was to be like _him_. I admired his desire to save people. Because fighting next to monsters like Superman by comparison he isn't strong at all. But he still fights with everything he has _even_ if he winds up ugly and miserable for it. The man's lived every day of his life as if he's cursed and he acts like he's completely alone in this world... but god Slade, who on earth could ever laugh at him?" Stammering he rasped, "I mean, he's a hero."

Eyes going dark he snarled, "But _you_ made me realize that none of those feelings were ever my own. I was a hypocrite... just like them." Drumming a hole in his head with his finger he spat, "Just like _all_ of _them_. I had been so driven by my obsessive need to help someone that I kept running, never seeing how wrong I was. It's all a fake. Hypocrisy can't save anything. Heroes can't save anything." Letting out a insane chuckle he mused, "And the worst part is... Slade. The worst part is I don't even remember what it was I wanted to save."

-Titan's Tower-

(East Side of the Island)

At first Beast Boy wasn't sure where he was.

All he knew was that he hurt _everywhere_.

He was swimming in his own head, his consciousness fading in and out like a cold tide of black water spiraling around a drain.

Then a familiar battle cry erupted in the dead space beside him.

Starfire... Everyone.

They still had to protect the Tower...

That single thought bringing him out of his daze, Beast Boy fought to open his eyes as he slowly regained consciousness. Whatever Robin had drugged him with was strong, as the moment his eyelids cracked open he immediately felt as though he was being tied to a tilt-a-whirl going a 100 miles an hour.

Slamming his eyes back shut it took everything he had not to empty his stomach out all over his high tops.

Robin was going to get it for this.

Meanwhile Starfire was fighting a losing battle against the cable binding her to the cannon barrel. Despite all her efforts Robin wasn't making this easy for her.

Noticing the slight twitch in Beast Boy the alien girl exclaimed,"Beast Boy, are you unharmed?"

"No," The changeling groaned through slammed shut eyelids, "On so many levels no. I haven't been this far from okay in a long time. My mouth tastes like it's been used as a weed whacker and my ribs feel like they're taking up new residency in my spleen."

When he was sure his stomach had stabled enough to give it another try Beast Boy slowly cracked open his eyes.

It was too bright. Everything was just too damn bright.

Groaning the green boy hung his head as the bite of his bruised ribs and shredded chest tissue gnawed at his insides. Finally he had to ask, "So did you get hit with that booster thing too?"

"Yes," Starfire said as she resumed struggling under the weight of the construction cable that held her fast,"I'm afraid I too have been administered the silver drug."

"Super. More good news." Beast Boy muttered in disdain before the metallic clicking sound of the computer panel caught his attention, "Um... Star. Please tell me the clock on that laser cannon isn't really counting down. Tell me I'm just suffering from head trauma."

"It has been counting down for awhile now." Starfire replied solemnly as she continued to bend and twist against the hard metal.

"Can you stop it?" Beast Boy asked, "I'm too beautiful to die!"

"I am trying..." Starfire huffed through her confinement, "Though I fear that in a minute we will either be victorious or no longer be around to care."

If that statement wasn't happy enough for the situation then Kid Flash's motionless body was a sad reminder of just how bad off things really were though.

Torn skin and burned gashes littered the youth's body and the red haired boy looked like he had been all but mauled in an industrial accident.

There was so much blood... and every minute the Titans spent tied to these cannons Kid Flash's powers were doing more harm then good. Already his body was working on healing itself. Pink exposed bits of muscle and scabs were quickly replacing areas where the flesh had been torn.

In a day or two they'd just be more scars to add to Flash's collection.

Right now though those healing powers were more dangerous than the injuries themselves. It wouldn't be long before Flash's body would start healing itself completely whether those broken bones were set properly or not.

"We've got to get KF to a hospital, Star." Beast Boy said in hushed rage, "I don't even think Raven can fix all this." Meeting her eyes the boy stammered, "Man... why would Robin do this?"

"Because swelling inhibits the immune system." A familiar monotone answered as Raven appeared out of the shadow of the farthest tower.

"RAVEN!" Beast Boy exclaimed, "I've never been so happy to see you in my life! Get us out of here!"

"What do you mean inhibit the immune system?" Starfire asked her darker comrade as the girl attempted to free them.

"Flash's powers," Raven explained, "Robin needed Flash to be hurt beyond belief if that booster shot he tried to give all of us was going to have chance of staying in KF's system long enough to protect him. Don't you see? All this attack on the Tower was a way for Robin to use the chaos as a smoke screen. He played both our sides for fools, and we walked in to every trap he set."

"I'm so confused here." Was all Beast Boy could offer. "What?"

Using her powers it only took a few seconds for the demon halfling to free her friends from their prison before she started work on trying to disarm the detonation sequence. Desperately slamming down on the computer keys Raven continued, "It means that Robin is planning on setting off more than just a few laser cannons."

"Are you referring to the weapon Slade and the unfunny clown spoke of the night Robin was taken?" Starfire asked as she slung Kid Flash gently over her shoulder.

"Most likely." Raven answered, "And if that weapon is half as nasty as Slade claimed it'll be this city and all the life in it's going to be eradicated if we don't stop Robin and fast."

"What makes you so sure he's really going to set it off?" Beast Boy countered with crossed arms.

"This." Raven replied using her telekinesis to display the broken contents of the vial Slade and Robin had left on the battlefield. "I didn't recognize it until Slade smashed it to pieces but this thing was filled to the brim with ionic neutralizers."

"Uh... I never payed much attention in chemistry class." The boy changeling muttered as the vial was dangled in front of his face, the revelation obviously lost on him.

"Just think of it as robot brain freeze." Raven tried to explain, "Robin probably coated the vials with an alcohol based tranquilizer like narcalol so he could knock us out after he shot he us full of this stuff. Despite blowing up our home and beating the tar out of us he decided to give us the only thing that even resembles an antidote and even laced it with a narcotic so we'd be too out of it to fight back. There's only one explanation for going that far for people you'd otherwise consider your enemy: he's planning on detonating that weapon himself and thinks we're going to get stuck in the crossfire."

"Wha-?" The green boy couldn't help but gawk, "So y-you mean all that and he's... he's _helping_ us?" Throwing his hands up in exasperation Beast Boy blurted, "Why would he go that far to beat the crud out of us just to help us later?"

"Because he's a _psychopath_, Beast Boy." Raven said quietly. "Robin's brain isn't working the way a normal person does. He can't process the type of mental ques everyone else gets. He's running on pure impulse without any memory about what emotional attachments and pain are. By his logic breaking every bone in KF's body is worth it if it means Robin can keep him breathing."

"So..." Beast Boy drawled, "So if Robin's trying to keep us alive... then does this mean he's on our side then?"

Pulling her hood down off her face Raven let out a sigh,"That's a good question."

-Titans Tower-

(South Side of the Island)

Rose had almost found the back door to the Tower, just where Robin explained it would be when a shadow crossed over the girl. Instantly looking up to see the looming figure of a Slade-bot almost directly on top of her, staring at her with cold silent metal eyes that strangely seemed human.

Like the Tin Man from Oz, it seemed rusted in place unable to so much as move but at the same time so fragile a small gust of wind could blow it over.

"You were never there when I woke up," Rose said to the robot in a hushed voice. "No matter how many times I wished for it, you were always gone the minute the sun came up." Pausing she let out a weak laugh,"But it's better late then never, huh Big Brother?"

Despite her sharp tongue she stared up at the mechanical figure beside her, almost as afraid to move as he was.

Silence.

Nothing but that dark, encompassing silence that both of them had gotten just too used to over the years.

Then all too suddenly Jericho's ghost like figure emerged from the Slade-bot; just like an insect as it stepped out of a dead shell. Treading out into the cold night air Joey hugged his arms together and shivered as if he was facing the world for the first time.

They stared at each other face to face for the first time since she had been in swaddling clothes.

And there was nothing but silence.

Joey Wilson was smaller than the boy Rose remembered from her dreams.

But those eyes were the same.

Those eyes were full of everything beautiful that she no longer felt herself worthy of.

And she found herself loving him just as much as she hated him.

"I'm here now, Rose." Was all Joey could offer.

Armed only with a sad smile that almost begged her for forgiveness the boy's small hand closed around hers before she could react. Sinking to his knees and pulling her close Jericho enveloped her in his embrace before she could even protest as he hugged her with everything he had.

"And I'll never leave you again." He whispered.

Letting out a muffled choke Rose fought with the emotions tearing apart his insides.

She wouldn't allow herself to succumb to grief.

Grief is the enemy.

There's no time for grief.

There's no room for grief.

Grief turns into acceptance.

Forgiveness.

Grief forgives what can never be forgiven.

Never.

And Rose would never forgive Slade. Even if she had to hurt the person she was trying to protect. She'd make that madman pay for what he'd done to her.

"There are never enough seats, are there?" Rose said softly, "They'll always be fewer seats called happiness than there are people to fill them. Robin told me that. He said it's because this world is full of meaningless things. Meaningless massacres.. meaningless suffering.. meaningless happiness even." Rose murmured as she raised her hand up towards Joey's throat and took Robin's syringe out of her pocket. "But at least you gave me dreams, Big Brother. At least I had that."

"Rose, what are you talking about?" Joey stammered.

Pressing her head to his she whispered, "This time, I'll be the one to watch over _you_ while you sleep."

Before injecting his chin with the needle in her clutched fingers.

"Please dream for me too, Big Brother." Rose quivered as Joey jumped back and ripped the syringe out of his skin. His vision already fading the boy could just barely make out his sister's pink lips as they pursed,"Because I can't promise you the world will still be here when you wake up."

To be continued...


	31. Up in Smoke

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 31: Up in Smoke

_"There's a pleasure sure, in being mad, which none but mad-men know."_

_George Farquhar_

-Gotham City-

(Haley's Circus)

Joker emptied his first round of bullets without much care as to who or what he was pointing at.

But at this range and considering how high up they were it didn't matter, every other shot was a death warrant.

Lighting shattered and the electrical wire crackled as bullets tore into circus machinery and ignited into several small fires."Just think Bats, in hours this city is going to be one big grinning ghost town!" The mad clown belted in glee, "Why after this they could put me in a helicopter, fly me up into the air and line all those the bodies head to toe in delightful little geometric patterns and it still wouldn't be enough!" Grin widening he mused, "Through the years... I never have kept count y'know. But I know _you_ _do_."

His voice getting sickly and high Joker exclaimed, "And I gotta tell you Batsy, I love you for it! Besides, I have to hand it to that brat of yours! What better place for our final whoopee then a duel to the death in front of a bunch of vulnerable, incapacitated circus carnies! HAHAHA!"

Shielding himself from the onslaught of bullets Batman hit the deck and immediately fired his grappling hook out into the open tent to avoid the oncoming chaos. Catching one of the support fixtures he tried to make as much distance between himself and the heavy artillery as possible. While the carbon fiber plating in his uniform took out most of the force from the Joker's shots that did manage connect; it didn't stop the ripping sensation behind the bullets from stinging every orifice of his body.

But pain was just the motivation he needed right now.

And years worth of rage was now coursing through Batman's skin, taking hold of his thoughts like a poison as it seeped into the pit of his stomach.

This time justice was far from his real motive tonight.

Instead a rancid truth began to echo in the Grim Avenger's ear... one that told him he should have killed the Joker years ago.

"Losing your temper, Bats?" The Joker asked from the rafters, "You should really learn to take a joke! But then I'll let you in on a little secret. I lost _my_ temper long, long ago, and I've never quite found it. Who knows, maybe it's under one of the sofa cushions as we speak!"

Expertly, and with surgical economy, Batman took the intuitive to chuck a insidiously well aimed batarang at the clown's pale hand dislodging the weapon before the Joker had anymore chances to reload.

Making sure he severed the blood vessel between the lunatic's index finger, Batman, looked back over his shoulder. The glance directed at Joker was lethal, as a look of pure distilled hatred seeped through the darkness.

Letting out a shrill cry as sharp metal tore through his glove and blood shot from his hand Joker fumbled and failed to catch his gun before it toppled out of his hands and plummeted to the floor below.

"You have _one_ chance to surrender, Joker." Batman stated monolithic, expressionless as he glared up at the smiling fiend from the rafters.

"Golly Pa, you think I'll ever be able to play the violin again?" Joker asked as he clutched at his blood soaked hand. Eyes narrowing he shouted down, "You can't stop me by _hurting_ me, Bats! Don't you know me at all? Pain is my boon companion, you insolent flying rodent! I am alive with pain every moment of every day! Ever since that fateful day when I was baptized in a vat of chemical goo, that corrosive stuff has burned through my skin like fire and made me the man I am." Yellow teeth flashing with an almost animal like swagger he breathed, "See, that's the difference between my caliber of villain and someone like Slade. Oh sure, I admire his willingness to do violence. Mostly because he has no problem doing it. But I'm different, Batman. I do violence because it's _fun_! Slade may be _good_ at his job, but me? **I LOVE MY JOB**!"

But the pause of projectiles and firearms had made the appearance of the black pitch smoke rising up all around him a grim reality. And the Joker soon came to realize his little party on the rooftop had all but made him a sitting duck. Taking a rubber chicken out the seemingly endless pocket space in his vest pocket the Clown Prince of Gotham swung it around one of the wire fixtures and used it as hand guard so he could slide down the railing just before the electrical box made one final eruption taking it and nearly everything around it in a ball of heat.

Riding the gas and shooting flames like a wave the insane clown's eyes lit up with manic glee as he barrelled to the ground with all the candor of a kid riding a roller coaster. His grin widening into a hideous predatory leer he hysterically waved his hands beside his face and exclaimed, "Phew! I got a little carried away there, almost sent myself off to that funny farm in the sky prematurely!"

Haley's Circus only had minutes before the main tent was burnt to the ground.

Already the inferno had erupted high above the tent rafters, catching on to the cloth canvas and igniting the ceiling with scorching flames.

Smoldering ashes and black smoke filling the arena Joker had almost made a safe landing just by the entrance... only to find Batman's grim silhouette waiting for him.

Landing a crippling punch directly in between Joker's eyes, the clown's feet went up over his head before they even had a chance to touch the ground.

Vaulting the villain into the air with one fist clenched around his pale white neck Batman seethed, "It's over."

The Dark Knight had practically become a fluid shadow.  
His features barely changed as he tightened his vice like grip on the Joker's juglar.  
Eyes slits, the creature was a fortress of flesh, bulwarked against the ravages of a merciless world.

"Now tell me where the hostages are." The black demon commanded before Batman's fist connected with the back of Joker's head this time.

"You know if you're trying to coerce valuable information out of me, slugging me in the noodle seems a little counter productive wouldn't you say?" Joker laughed in between his bloody hacking, "It's like trying to deform someone by working on an already broken jaw. You'll just wear out your wrist that way." Scoffing the clown sighed, "Geez man, where's your concept of craft?"

Every syllable dripping with disdain Batman, **"Where are they?"**

"You didn't say _please_." Joker replied with diabolical mirth, "Besides it's so much more fun to make you sweat. Don't forget how well I _know_ you, Batman. When you approach a hostage situation like I put you in tonight you probably assume the victims are _already_ dead. Oh, sure, you do everything you can to save them anyway, because that's _you_. But you don't really dare hope, do you?" Fire burning in his soulless eyes the clown added, "The place is roasting to the ground around us, Batman! And all because you couldn't save them. Why it'll take weeks for the cops to sort out the charred tutus from the roasted bearded ladies alone! There's nothing you can do to me this time, Batman. No reason for me to turn stooley! Because I've finally proven my point. I've given you the greatest punchline! So why aren't you laughing? I know you get the joke."

Raving again that horrible laugh filled the circus tent as he continued, "Don't you see my dastardly dim Dark Knight? It doesn't matter anymore if you catch me, they'll be no asylum to throw me back in! Why this whole city will be a crazy house soon! And look at you, the hero who couldn't stop it."

Pausing the Joker sneered, "Why... you couldn't even save _one_ lousy circus brat when it mattered most."

White hot anger was blocking Batman's mind to the point that he could barely process anything other than the growing urge to crush Joker's head in his hands. Blinding him to the fact that Joker was dangerously close to running out of air with each second spent in his grip.

"Hey Bats..." Joker gurgled in between a ragged chokes for air and his own insane chuckling, "So... s..top me... if you've heard... this one before..."

He never finished his joke.

Before he could even make it to the second line, another face creased with the flares of pain appeared beside the two.  
Harley Quinn staggered towards the two madmen. She was limping and her teeth were set in a stoic grimace as she bit at her black lipstick. Torn and bloody and quite terrifying, it was obvious the girl had been caught in more than one of the Joker's gunshots.

Yet her forward motion seemed compelled, as if possessed. On the floor in front of her, the blood spots vanished into the charred dirt as she limped towards the two.

And before another word could be spoken between either of them Harley Quinn marched up and cracked the back of Joker's skull with what looked like a broken kerosene lamp.

It seemed almost surreal even for the Dark Knight, as a sick crunching sound ruptured through air. Before the mad clown's beady eyes rolled up into the back of his head and he made a rather unsightly plop before going limp in the Batman's clutches.

"_W-why_ Quinn?" The Dark Knight could only mutter.

Dumbfounded the looming black figure could only stare at the hench-girl beside him.

Harley had had every chance to ensure that blow should have had been meant for _him_.

Despite himself Batman had been consumed with rage by what the Joker had said, distracted and burning with a blood lust he had barely thought himself capable of. That little lamp could have ended it all.

So why...?

On the verge on tears Harley immediately dropped the broken lamp, making small open mouthed moans as she assessed the damage she had inflicted on her dear Mister J.

"Ooh, ooooh, ooh."

Dancing like a little girl who desperately needed to use the bathroom Harley stammered, "You think my Puddin's gonna be okay?"

Even the world's greatest detective was having a hard time figuring out how to answer that.

But finding a comeback was the least of his problems.

Taking a silent breath Batman returned to himself. The rage quelled he stood imperturbable, finally back in command of himself after coming so dangerously close to the abyss' edge.

And now that Harley Quinn had abandoned her post as Leslie's guard dog Batman instantly turned his attention to finding the old doctor before the blazing tent could collapse on them.

Scanning the area he found the small woman's frame huddled between two crates, no doubt a last ditch resort to escape Joker's arsenal rain. Hauling Leslie's tiny bird like frame over one shoulder and carrying Joker's limp body over the other, Batman turned back to the clown girl at the entrance and ordered her to run.

Harley didn't need to be told twice.

Red surging heat was exploding through the area, followed by a wave of force that swept through the barren tent grounds like thunder.

Barreling forward Batman broke into a dead run, vaulting over broken bits of machinery and fallen wooden crates as he pushed every ounce of adrenaline into his body.

It was painfully silent for only a minute. But it was the type of quiet that washed over you like liquid, the type that only came with disaster.

Suddenly a ripping noise pierced the bitter silence and time started ticking again.

The tent structures were failing one by one, the nearest to him letting out a sound like a pitiful moan as the wooden panels and metal backings bent and snapped under the heat of the explosions.

It was barely even seconds after the pair had escaped the last canvas flap when the pride of Gotham's young and old collapsed in on itself and disappeared in a wave of flames and burnt dreams.

The main tent of Haley's Circus, where the Flying Graysons and seven generations of circus performers had lived, dreamed and flew was... now no more than dust.

"No..." Batman rasped as he watched the inferno swallow the last remnants of the grand old tent.

Looking at the devastation in front of him Batman was almost too numb to even feel anger.

Had this been Robin's real motive all along?

Destroying the last ties to anything here that might have made him human.

Or was it just another one of Joker's bad jokes?

Eyes narrowing into slits Batman hauled the hench-wench back up to her feet and snarled, "I want answers, Quinn. _Now. _Why the double cross?"

Looking at him sharply Harley yanked her arm back before she rasp-berried him, "It ain't what you think, Dork Knight so get your mitts off me! And before you start getting any cute ideas in that thick skull on yours that I've gone legit or something lemme tell ya right now that this don't change nothing!" Turning her attention back to the unconscious lunatic inches away she reopened the flood gates as she cradled him like a rag doll, "There there, baby. Mamma'll make it better."

Hugging that repulsive form, Harley looked more like a scared little girl than a crazed sociopath.

And seeing her like this not just scared, but truly _frightened_ was something the Dark Knight hadn't witnessed on Harleen Quinzeel in long time.

Batman would have wagered there were few things on earth strong enough to make Harley Quinn betray her insane loyalty to the Joker.

And Harley would _never_ turn double agent at the risking of losing the Joker's affection.

The few times she had tried she always went back to him at the first chance of a double cross.

Unless of course it was the thought of losing the Joker himself that drove her strange actions this time.

After all a mad Puddin was better than a dead one.

"The ionizers." Batman reasoned as the puzzle pieces snapped together, "Were you given the injection too?"

Rubbing her arms as if the very thought of it was traumatizing Harley looked like she was gonna cry again. "I told the kid how much I hated needles. I _told_ him." She pouted, "But he didn't listen to me. After shooting me up he told me the only way he'd give me the antidote was if I forced you into taking the same stuff. I just figured he shot me with that cybernetic plague thing... I didn't know he was planning all _this._"

"If anything, Quinn... he saved your life." Batman answered.

"Yeah, we'll tell that to me _after_ we stop that kid of yours from taking out half the coastline." Harley scoffed. "This whole thing was just supposed to be a setup! We were gonna to stall you long enough to target Gotham and those other cities, have a few laughs and wham-mo!" She exclaimed hiking up her thumb, "Hightail it out of here before the fireworks started. Thing is I think Bird Boy reprogrammed the computer or something and he's planning on setting off those missiles somewhere else or something."

"Any ideas on where he's planning to re-detonate the device?" Batman asked.

"How the heck should _I_ know?" Harley snapped stomping her foot, "_You're_ the big shot detective!"

Gently untying Leslie, Batman was weighing his options.

"You got to stop him, Bats." The clown girl muttered as she watched him work on freeing the old lady. Blue eyes filled with terror she explained, "The kid's off his nut for real and all this just ain't funny anymore!"

"I'm afraid I'd have to agree with her." Leslie replied once the gag was removed and strong hands helped her back on her feet. "Even you might not be able to handle him this time, Batman. He has all your brilliance, your inept crime solving tools, and a complete disregard for human life. He isn't like the other madmen you've dealt with."

The Grim Avenger's black form was blank, his dark looming figure lit only by the red glare of the ravaging flames behind him. Whatever ghosts or demons were raging within him were silenced by his gargoyle like appearance.

But before anyone in the trio could say anymore the blaring of the police sirens and fire engines began to tear up the distant highway as they raced towards the fairgrounds. In a matter of minutes most of Gotham's PD and service trucks would have the place overrun.

"You have two choices, Quinn." Batman stated throwing a glance back at the girl. "Help me stop this, or join _him_ on a one way ticket back to Arkham." He didn't even try to hide his disdain as he hoisted the Joker back up. Towering over her Batman blocked any chance of exit should the girl foolishly try to run, "What's it going to be?"

The intimidation more than did the trick.

"Okay, okay!" Harley stammered waving her hands up in surrender as the glare of the emergency lights got closer and closer, "I'll show you where we stashed the circus freaks, just lay off would ya?"

Black clouds crackled and thunder roared as the rain began to batter down against the raging flames. Like so many things it was a cosmic act too little and too late to make any difference on the dreams now lost in the fiery inferno.

Staring at the dark skies it seemed as though the heavens were mourning the loss of something that would never again be revisited.

All while the police cars and ambulances waited in the pouring rain, lights flashing though they remained unmoving.

As Batman pulled Harley Quinn forward he couldn't help think it all looked surreal. As if he was staring at the real world while still traveling through the nightmare.

Meanwhile...

Titans Tower

(Entrance)

"_Oh I know the Teen Titans well." _Slade couldn't help but chuckle, "_I've gone up against every incarnation of this team, for money, for pride or out of simple obligation. Why I've even fought on their side a few times. So I know them well enough to know they can't be underestimated, particularly not when they have something I want. But the Titans are not like the Justice League; you can't beat them with mere force. Their youth makes them unpredictable. Only by gaining the upper hand before the first punch is thrown can you ever truly defeat them."_

As usual, Slade had no intention of losing.

Neither did the boy.

Both were bloody, dirt covered and fighting in a area that had been rendered into a bullet filled wasteland.

This time Slade was forcing Robin to fight his way out of this with all the savagery of hell.

And so far, Robin hadn't disappointed.

Glaring back at Slade was a boy forever submerged in ice.

Suspended, caught.

His eyes implacable, buried.

Deflecting the world and everyone in it with an ugly gaze.

The boy was so much like he was at that age.

"You're getting sloppy, young man." Slade taunted as he scanned the horizon for any sign of the boy's current hiding place. This little game of cat and mouse was drawing to a conclusion, and his years of experience outweighed even the most zealous prodigies' youth and endurance.

At this point he was sure that Robin was much more exhausted and had taken more damage then the boy would ever let on.

Robin's options were running out.

Leaning deeper into the rock crevice just out of Slade's pan of vision, Robin was assessing the damage on his beloved bo-staff before he dared go in for a final strike.

The top had all but melted off, and one of the sectional joints on the non-lethal weapon was torn in half thanks to constantly deflecting shots from Slade's gun.

Lexcorp wasn't exactly making kiddie toys here.

And if the laser powered hand gun Slade was using could melt a titanium alloy like Robin's staff then those guns were shooting hot at about 3135°F.

Never mind the staff, one misstep and his limbs would be cauterized off his body.

"Hurry up, kid." Robin muttered to himself as let his thoughts quickly drift to the Rose and her fight against time. Sneering to himself as he prepared for one last attack the boy reasoned,"Or in five minutes we're all going to be sitting at the bottom of the ocean."

To be continued...


	32. Evil and Kindness

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 32: Evil and Kindness

-Titan's Tower-

(Common Room)

"Raven, just give me a little more time!" Cyborg pleaded as Raven's broken voice drifted in and out of the communicator, "I can get her up and running again, I know I can! You're just going to have give me a few more minutes."

"Starfire and Beast Boy just took KF to the emergency room and I'm not getting a response from Batman or Jericho. We need you out _here_, Cyborg." The demon girl on the other end replied. "The detonation override switch is encrypted with three IOS configuration passwords and I don't know how to shut it down."

Used to being the ever constant bearer of gloom and despair Raven didn't sugar coat it for him, "If we don't find a way to crack this code in 5 minutes there won't be a tower for you to fix. And sooner or later Slade and Robin _are_ going to stop beating each other stupid long enough to realize the others are gone. We running out of options here, Cyborg... not to mention _chances_."

"I know, and I'll be there." Cyborg replied, "But you're just going to have to cover for me for a little while longer."

The connection going fuzzy Cyborg wasn't able to hear Raven's response before the screen went blank on him.

Just like everything else in the tower, his communicator had been all but shattered in the blast.

A small kink in the growing layers of bad news.

One by one the tower's systems were failing, and it wouldn't be long until another support frame went out from under the force of the debris and building pressure on the higher floors. Cyborg was fighting this battle to save his home with everything he had... and so far he was losing it.

"You could always try to contact the Justice League, you know..." A small voice suddenly suggested from behind him.

Stepping out of the darkness, emerged a pale child with messy curls and dangerous green eyes. Seeing she had Joey's communicator in her hand, Cyborg didn't have to ask the kid how she had gotten past the security codes.

It also didn't take a lot of detective work to realize she wasn't there to help.

Silently glaring at her from the corner of his eye, the oldest Titan continued his work on getting the security system back up and decided to leave her be for now. After all he didn't have time for junior bad guys and their doomsday monologues.

"With Titan's Tower as damaged as it is you know you don't have a chance of stopping the detonation, right Mister Cyborg?" Rose asked as she hiked herself up on the broken equipment and proceeded to kick her legs back and forth as if she hadn't a care in the world. "_Either_ detonation."

"But the Watchtower can. It has more than enough interceptors capable of taking out those missiles before they have to chance to drop their payloads. I saw the Justice League's big cannon thing on the news once, think it blew up half a city. The grown ups who work at the orphanage back home got _really_ upset about it." Poking at a broken camera the girl asked, "So how come you guys never built cool guns like that? You're obviously smart enough to."

Still no answer.

A thin smile etching on the girl's face she simply shrugged and continued talking.

It wasn't like it mattered whether he ignored her or not.

Watching his hulking frame as he turned his back on her completely Rose continued, "But then again Batman would probably just _block_ the feed if you tried. He wouldn't want the League to know his little problem child had gotten so out of hand."

Glancing back at her Cyborg sighed and got to his feet. If he knew any better the nasty words falling out of this kid's pint sized mouth weren't really her own. They were Robin's... which meant the white haired little squirt was just repeating everything his former leader had asked her to say.

But it would take more than the rantings of a five year old to rile him up.

"Kid, is there a particular reason you're hanging out in a structurally damaged building taking to yourself? Because in case you hadn't noticed, I'm a little _busy_ here." The older boy spat as he hauled a large bundle of ATX power cable over to the monitoring system.

Chuckling Rose cocked her head to the side and gave him a smile most twenty year olds hadn't perfected. "Not really. But I don't think you're going to make it in time, Mister Cyborg." She said in a sing song voice.

"Yeah? Well don't be so sure about that." Cyborg retorted accepting her challenge, "I built this tower out of the remains of a Gordanian spaceship, it can a take anything Slade can throw at it. She _always_ has." At this point however the robotic teen was finding he had had just about enough of the kid to last him several lifetimes, "Was there a bomb or something old Rob sent you in here to toss in my face? Cuz if there's not I'm gonna have to ask you to get out of _my_ tower. The door's behind you. Don't let it hit you on the way out."

Pursing her lips the girl placed her hands on her knee and gave him a inquiring stare, "Hmmm. You must really love this tower, don't you Mister Cyborg? Most people would call it a lost cause when even the foundation's shaking under their feet."

The look she got in reply made it clear Cyborg was ready to pick up the table she was sitting on and send it through one of the walls.

"It's my home." He said curtly, taking a soldering iron out of his index finger and starting work on the wiring by his feet. "And I've protected this city for way too long to let a punk like Slade and some nut in a clown suit mess it up."

"Yeah... the Titans really _have_ protected this city from so many threats." Rose agreed before she got quiet. "You know when I was little... I always looked up to you guys even before I found out my brother was a Titan. You all were my heroes. You made me and the kids at the orphanage feel like we weren't helpless. But sooner or later all children have to find out about the real world, Mister Cyborg. And if I learned anything from Slade it's that it doesn't matter how many times you saved this city; you Titans are never really going to be a part of it." Scoffing she forced down a laugh,"I mean, this city wouldn't know _what_ to _do_ with itself if you ever asked if you could join it!" Resting her head on her folded hands the girl teased, "Because most heroes are just freaks and monsters when they're not saving the day."

"Come on. You don't really believe that, do you?" Cyborg couldn't help ask as he stopped his work long enough to turn back around to her.

"Most people are born weak, Mister Cyborg." The white haired girl shrugged, "That's the truth when you stop living in storybooks."

Now that he was making eye contact with her Rose took the opportunity to get a good look at him.

It was strange to see how the boy's corded muscle, smooth face and even that single deep brown eye was able to merge so well with the cold abrasive metal and buzzing electronics that surrounded his flesh.

A marvel of modern medicine.

Though it was downright crazy to think someone could still be alive after having so many actual body parts taken away from him.

"I can only imagine how people must look at you." The girl said sympathetically, "How they stare." Hopping off the table so she could hunched down beside the teen the girl asked, "Would you think I was being silly if I told you I know how you feel?"

"Nah," Cyborg said quietly not sure if she was mocking him or being sincere with that comment. Deciding to be the bigger man he added, "I think everyone's felt outside circle at some point in their lives."

"I've _never_ been a part of the circle, Mister Cyborg." Rose countered back ferociously, her little white fists clenched.

"I may not be stared at as much as you, but I know what it's like to be treated differently! To be labeled subhuman just because you're the property of the state. To be called the daughter of a _whore_... all because of the choices made by a mother who died before I even got to know her. I've had people judge me since the day I was born just because they're too twisted and _small _inside to have anything more important to do then make the rest of world feel as insignificant as they are! I don't want to be a part of that circle, Mister Cyborg! I want to tear it down!"

Surprisingly the half-human, half-robot couldn't think of anything he could do to quell her anger as this child barely tall enough to hit his thigh spoke with an anger that all but consumed her.

But then there had been a time once when he had been almost as angry at the world as she was.

Back when he had lived in the slums and ghetto of _Hell's Kitchen_, running away to the only place he could think of after his accident. At that time the rage and bitterness he had felt over losing his mother and most of his humanity had practically infected him like a disease. Warping his mind as he all but managed to convince himself that a freak like him would never have a chance at a real life.

Putting his large hand over the crown of the child's head Cyborg gently ruffled her head and flashed her a warm smile, "You know I used to worry a lot about how the rest of the world saw me. But even if I could redo the past, I wouldn't take back what's already happened. Because if I did that, then everything I've lived for up until now would be a lie. And besides... I'm not alone anymore. I have people who can count on me and they're the ones who look past all the bolts and wires and see the real me underneath the metal. Even though it took me a while to accept everything that happened to me one things for sure now; I'm not ashamed of who I am."

Bending down the boy added, "And you know... the world isn't as weak as you might think it is."

A strange sad look filling the child's green eyes she sighed, "I wish I was as confident in the world as you are, Mister Cyborg. You know... during nasty storms at the orphanage they'd always chase away our fear by telling us that the angels were just crying. They told us their tears were supposed to wash away the bad." Laughing bitterly the girl turned to him, "'There can't be rainbows without the rain' they said. But I never have seen very many rainbows in my life, Mister Cyborg. And when there aren't any angels, you have to learn to make due with the Devil."

"Well since we're speaking of him," Cyborg sighed realizing there wasn't much he could say to change her mind at this point. "How about you tell me the _real_ reason Robin sent you in here after me."

She silent at first but it was the type that quickly began to make his attitude toward the girl change from pity to aprehension.

Trapped in a dark, dilapidated building that was all but ready to come down on top of him as they spoke... surrounded only by a little girl who was gazing at him with all the ferocity of a predator.

It was like a bad Children of the Corn remake.

And despite her small size that evil look in her eyes was all but making the hair on the back his neck stand on end.

"Oh I was simply asked to deliver you a message." The child replied with a doll like smile, "Because whether you like it or not Titan's Tower _will_ be destroyed. And let's face it, none of you are really in any position to stop it. You have no more power than an ant trying to stop a tidal wave."

Walking towards the exit Rose looked back at him only once to see if he would follow, "The choice is yours, Mister Cyborg. You can stay here and wait for walls to come down on you and shatter along with all the other machines, or you can come with me and fight for your life like a man. For all the good it will do you, at least you'll go with your boots on."

Swallowing the rancid lump in his throat Cyborg fought to keep himself from saying some very unheroic things.

The kid was going to be a super villain before she entered grade school if she kept this up.

Eyes narrowing he followed behind the kid as she led the way. "Say, you wouldn't happen to be part of Arkham's day care program would you?" He shot back in annoyance.

-Titan's Tower-

(Entrance)

Robin had probably been a little over ten when he had started to realize that most of the world was mentally ill; those of us outside the asylum only hide it a little better. We've all known people who talk to themselves, people who sometimes squinch their faces into horrible grimaces when they believe no one is watching, people who have some hysterical fear of snakes, the dark, tight places, the long drop down . . . and, of course, of _bats_.

So if we are all insane, then sanity becomes just a matter of degree. If your insanity leads you to carve up women like Victor Zsasz or if you have an obsession with plants on a primal level like Poison Ivy, then people clap you away in Arkham; if, on the other hand, your insanity leads you only to talk to yourself when you're under stress or to pick your nose on your morning bus, then you are left alone to go about your business minus a few awkward stares.

Let's face it, most people are just a little bit crazy.

But it wasn't until his emotions had died that a more sad reality began to take shape in the boy's head. And it wasn't until his confrontation with Slade in the slums almost a week ago that he realized crime and chaos flourishes in a society ultimately not because people are cruel, but rather because people are kind.

People's kindness is what rots the world.

There is so much of it we practically suffocate in it. It leads to misery, to every petty woe plaguing our worthless species. And there are hundreds even millions of kindnesses to every one act of cruelty.

But for some reason, the cruelty stands out more. Evil shines so much brighter in our minds then good ever can. That's why most cruelty has to exist as a great "evil" to compete with the masses of kindness.

So with that logic in mind heroes are what they are not out of their infinite kindness but rather because they lost something they thought they couldn't live without, and they were proven wrong.

Heroes can survive without parents, without body parts and even without always being able to protect the people they love. But they can't survive without knowing... deep in their bones that they're _not_ like them. Not like the ones who stole their loved ones from them.

So what was really making the world go round?

Do we bond over tragedies or over hope?

What makes us act the way we do as humans? Is it those thousand of kindnesses or that one great evil?

But then again... this was probably all crazy talk to begin with.

And Robin didn't really have time for philosophical arguments right now... not when Slade was literally beating the stuffing out of him.

Though the boy had yet to receive a direct hit from Slade's firearm he had found himself close enough to the crossfire to develop several second degree burns on his arms and legs. Defensive wounds from protecting his face and vitals, Robin's skin lay blistered and bloody under the tattered remains of his uniform.

Such painful lesions would have driven a normal man to snivel and grovel like a worm.

And yet the young man continued to fight on as if he were possessed... almost completely unaffected by the damage that had been done to his body.

"Not even a whimper... not a single cry for mercy. The blunt trauma alone would have most people on their knees. But not you, Robin..." Slade praised shaking his head, "You know you could have had such a bright future as my apprentice. In time I could have molded you into one of the most feared men on earth. It seems such a shame to have to kill you."

"You talk a lot for an assassin, Slade." Robin chuckled wiping the blood and charred ash out of his eyes. "I think I'm really going to enjoy the quiet once I've finally killed you."

"That's my boy." Slade said with a cryptic smile, "For all the things that make us different, it's your anger that continues to constantly shape you in my image. Anger can eat you up from inside, Robin... it can turn you into something you didn't even know you were." Fist clenched he breathed, "But to the select few talented enough to use it, it can make you _stronger_."

Eye narrowing he added, "You aren't really a protector you know, you never have been. Rather... you and I are kindred spirits linked only in our ability to destroy. How I had hoped that you would learn to embrace that power, to harness the devastation that follows you wherever you go. Instead you continue to disappoint me."

"Get used to being disappointed." Robin spat back.

Voice dripping with amusement Slade asked, "Surely you must be aware of that true nature of yours. It's the real reason we both know that madness never really changed you. Instead it only brought to the surface what was already there."

"And what was that Slade?" The boy couldn't help but ask.

"Why," Slade was all too willing to answer, "A cold, callous nature dictated only by a twisted view of justice. The truth is you already _had_ the makings of a perfect villain, Robin. You just needed a small _push _in the right direction." Taking a moment to pause so it could sink the seasoned assassin reasoned, "Oh, sure you've done your fair share of _saving the day_ but we both know the gratitude of strangers hardly accounts for the times you've failed to save the ones that really _matter_."

"Even now I'm guessing that's the real reason you're allowing your little friends to live. They don't really have meaning anymore, you no longer have the emotions for that. But rather they've become a bad habit. You've protected them for so long you just don't know _how_ to get rid of them. It would almost be pathetic if you weren't so ruthless about keeping them safe." Slade concluded before he let a smirk crease his face, "Deep down they never really _did_ matter did they, Robin? You could cripple them, scar them, beat them within a inch of their lives... just so long as you could justify it later that it was for their own good. Everything was always for your _great cause_."

Scoffing the mercenary taunted, "It's controlling your every move even now, isn't it?" His good eye full of disdain and venom Slade muttered, "Your mission. And though you can't even remember _why _you're fighting for it, you'll still waste your last breath protecting it."

Silent for a moment Slade couldn't help but see the parallel between another lifetime... one that was lost long ago.

A life that had been full of memories of a wife.

Of a son.

Of a happiness he had destroyed with his own two hands.

In hushed voice the man murmured, "But I was foolish like you too once. I had things I wanted to protect. But I soon found out that mine was a existence suited only for chaos. People like you and I can barely shake someone's hand without marking them for death. That's how life rips you apart, Robin. Loved one by loved one, innocent by innocent. It never stops, not until you acknowledge once and for all just what kind of monster you really are."

Letting out a sigh Robin crossed his arms.

"You know you're probably right about me." The boy said with a nod as he found he completely agreed with the mercerany, "You've been right about just about everything else so far. And it never _is_ going to stop is it?" Meeting the assassin's gaze head on he simply stated, "But that's why I'm ending this here. Even if I go down with you in the process Slade, I'm _going_ to making sure there won't be a next time." Picking up one of the larger pieces of his shattered bo-staff Robin smirked, "So if you're finally done talking now, maybe we can get back to killing to each other."

-Jump City-

(General Hospital)

The Titans had had more of their fair share of love taps in the three years that they had been together as a team but strangely they had always found a way to avoid the horror's of public medicine.

And there was a good reason for it.

Even in the dead of night the emergency room seemed completely overrun with chaos as doctors, nurses and injured patients scrambled around each other in a confined space that almost made Arkham seem roomy.

The cheery atmosphere didn't get much better when Starfire all but ripped the front doors from it's hinges. As a smoke screen of dust and plaster instantly filled the area the harmless bystanders had to barrel out of the way as the alien wasted no time locating the nearest person in a white coat so she could vault him off his feet.

"This boy needs help and you are to assist him, _now_!" The girl snarled as she held the doctor by the scruff of his jacket and shoved Kid Flash's tattered body into the man as if a child was mashing two dolls together.

It was only bewildering for a few seconds as the doctor fought to compose himself from the shock of being hoisted a foot into the air by a girl half his size. After all it's not like the residents of Jump City weren't unused to living in a place where ooze monsters, Dooms Day devices and costumed nutcases threatened them on a biweekly basis.

But even the most seasoned doctor couldn't help feel his throat clench when he came face to face with the grisly metal spikes lodged in young speedster's blood soaked feet. "M-my god..." The doctor stammered, "What on earth happened to him?"

Eyes lowering neither Beast Boy nor Starfire seemed to be able to find the words to answer the man. Instead Beast Boy avoided the question, "We don't really have time to answer that, Doc. Can you fix him?"

Placing Kid Flash on a stretcher the small army of medical staff started work on getting an I.V in the child before the green changeling had managed to finish his sentence.

"The patient's right patella has been shattered and there are multiple torn ligaments... though it's already showing signs of healing." Looking up at Beast Boy the doctor harshly asked, "Just how _long_ has he been like this before you decided to get him medical attention?"

"He's Kid _Flash_!" Beast Boy seethed not liking the doctor's tone or where he was going with that insinuation, "He has a heightened metabolism. That means bone heal fast, not _right._"

"I see," The doctor sighed as he rubbed his tired eyes, "Well then we need to move _faster_ than him if we're going to save his knee."

"I need some ethyl chloride in here now!" A nurse barked to one of the orderlies as the team swarmed on the child.

"There are numerous shallow lacerations on the medial and lateral plantar muscles of his soles, Doctor." Another assistant chimed in, "We'll have to get him on broad spectrum antibiotics before the chance of sepsis spreads."

Carting the teen away from his friends it wasn't until they had almost passed through the large white doors to surgery that a yellow hand weakly raised itself from the stretcher and a small voice breathed, "..._R...Red__..."_

Starfire's ears catching his faint murmur even from half way across the room the alien quickly floated up over to where he lay and gently clasped his hand,"I am here, Flash." She reassured as best she could.

"Hold on a second. I gotta tell you... something about... Robin, Star. It's something you need to know. You see... h-he-_" _Motioning for her to come closer the boy leaned over so he could whisper something in her ear before Kid Flash all but lost the strength to even raise his head.

But he had to be content that his secret was in good hands, and once he was finished dispelling the information the boy gave her a tired smile, "It's just between us though. He'll kill me... if he ever found out I sold out his biggest secret. But you never can tell if it'll come in... handy."

"Shh. No more talking now," Starfire hushed as she brushed a hand over his cheek. "For now you must rest, and leave Robin to us."

Giving her a toothy grin Kid Flash rasped, "Go save the world. I'll still be here when you get back. And I've _never_... been one to break a promise t-to a pretty girl." Closing his eyes as she gently ruffled his hair he finished, "So I won't start now."

With that said Starfire had to watch as the mass crowd of doctors sped the fallen hero from view, her hand slipping out of his as he left.

Silent Beast Boy could only retrace the lonely steps to where his friend stood; a solitary figure in an otherwise crowded hallway. There wasn't much he could do beside reach his hand out to replace the one that vanished from her grip.

Bleary eyed the alien girl couldn't look at him as she weakly returned the gesture and squeezed back. Tamaranians never hide their emotions after all: they wore their joy for all to see... the same way as their tears.

But that still didn't make it any easier to watch her cry.

"He'll be okay, Star." Was all Beast Boy could offer. "He's Flash. That guy doesn't know how to stop, remember?"

"We should return to the others, do you not think?" Starfire replied quickly wiping her eyes. "Surely they will be needing our help..."

But as the two teenagers moved back towards the scattered remains of the front door they couldn't help but be humbled by both the hospital staff and several of less injured patients that had already made way for the stretcher as Kid Flash was raced towards an operating room.

To the Titans, Jump City had always been the home they had protected at all cost. But to see the look of vanquish and concern on so many strangers' faces, as if this tragedy was somehow their own... as if they were watching a son or grandson fight for his life and not just a hero.

Despite the uncertainty and fear in her heart, Starfire couldn't help but find it touching to see such love in the hearts of people who had never even met them.

If anything it had renewed in them the realization that to Jump City, perhaps the Titans were more to them than mere champions.

More than icons to be merely held at arm's length.

That they mattered to this city in a way the teen heroes had not truly understood until now.

So now more than ever the Teen Titans knew they would not fail to protect their home nor the people who placed such hope in them.

Even if they had to take down one of their own in the process.

To be continued...


	33. Catching Lightning

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 33: Catching Lightning

**Author's Rantings: So Wally West is my all time favorite Flash. If you read the comics, then you already know about his downright Spartan attitude while suffering through his adolescence. If you don't geek out to the paper version well hey you can still appreciate the fact he almost pisses pure excellence just by watching the Justice League or Teen Titans. And while I'm trying to deal with the kinks of how he can be both Kid Flash _and_ Flash in the Animated DC Universe this is my small attempt to tie in some of the more crucial comic storyline to the DCAU. So try not to write too much hate mail.**

"_Everyone has one. That kid you grew up with who knows you as well as your own brother. Maybe better. And then somewhere along the way, __something just happens. Something that pushes you both in different directions...s__o, in the abscence of binding words I tried to __show you who I still was with action. And now I find I can't stop moving.__"_

_Wally West_

-Jump City-

(General Hospital)

Sometimes you have to hurt yourself to help others.

Sacrifice and dedication is what makes a hero a hero.

And you know the saying, "No pain no gain."

Which was a mantra Wally West took to heart every time he put on the uniform.

While his mentor the Flash had obtained his powers when he was an adult, Wally had been hit with the electric charged chemicals that transformed him into a meta-human when he had only been 11 years old.

See unlike the speedsters before him the "Speed Force" had hardwired itself directly into Wally's being, and that left him constantly connected to it.

So while Barry got to turn off his powers and live a normal life when he wanted to... well KF couldn't.

Having that direct connection meant that it was the _"kid"_ Flash that was actually the fastest person in existence, making it a strange case of the sidekick surpassing the hero.

At least as far as powers went.

Wally's link to the Speed Force allowed him to break sound barrels, to manipulate kinetic energy in everything around him, and even travel faster than the speed of light if he had to. A feat that old Barry couldn't accomplish even in his wildest of day dreams.

But there was downside to all of that, a _big_ one.

See the Speed Force had a grip on Kid Flash's body in such a way that it also affected Wally's metabolism to the point he had to eat constantly just to keep his body from starving to death.

Any bit of over exertion on his part and his body could turn on itself and eat it's very muscle just to stay alive.

Never mind the fact it had also altered his ability to grow and even changed how the boy was aging.

And the worst part... something the kid had only discovered once he hit puberty... was that the very speed that made him a demigod was also literally tearing his body apart from the inside out.

But even after finding out that the Speed Force was a double edged sword, Wally still put on the costume whenever evil struck. He doubted he could ever the leave super-heroics behind him even if he wanted to... as it's difficult to walk away from this kind of life no matter how fast you run.

And Kid Flash never had been very good with the concept of stopping.

So what if his superpowers came with a heavy price tag, to Wally it didn't change the fact that he greeted every day knowing that he had the greatest job on earth.

Besides Wally West just liked helping people... it was what he had been born to do.

So he tried to brush off the severity of his condition by simply saying it was like "_hitting a wall"_ whenever he had to explain his illness to Robin.

"_When I was 11, I was caught in the same freaky billion-to-one accident Barry was." _Wally had told him_, "It hurt at first. Tingled. But in the end, the results were the same. Damn, was I fast. And now dude, I'm the fastest man **alive**."_

Even though he made light of it, they both knew that saying it tingled barely described the pain Wally went through on a near daily basis. It really felt a lot more like having all the nerve thresholds in his arteries crushed at exactly the same time.

But the pain never changed Wally the way it would have effected most people.

In fact if you had to pick him out of a crowded room, the constant give a way was to look for the guy wearing the biggest smile.

That's why most people never realized that the boy who laughed the loudest on the outside was the one silently screaming on the inside.

Because Wally was what people call a heroes' hero.

Few people understood the pain that Kid Flash had to endure to continue doing what he was doing.

But Robin always had.

And that was why despite everything that had passed between them over the years, they had remained such good friends.

Though his friend didn't necessarily agree with his false bravado Dick Grayson respected his fellow sidekick enough to go along with it.

The world would always need heroes, and as long as that was the truth of the world then Kid Flash would never stop running.

So what _if_ Wally's illness and the strange link between him and the Speed Force was only getting worse as the kid got older.

But just because Robin kept his mouth shut about it _didn't_ mean he had to like it.

And he didn't.

He didn't like lying to their friends any more than he liked being forced to pretend everything was alright.

Because KF was more than just a League member's sidekick.

He was a Titan now too.

And unlike the League who put their mission before anything else, the Titans treated each other like the family most of them had lost.

The Titans took care of their own.

So it was with that thought pattern that the weak part of Wally West's heart just _had_ to believe that the ghost of his best friend was still in there somewhere.

That there was some method behind Robin's madness when he had broken his kneecap and beat him bloody on the cold, damp cement.

Even criminally insane the Boy Wonder was too meticulous to ever do something this extreme without good cause.

In a hushed voice with hidden eyes Robin had whispered,_"I admire your bravery, Wally. But being brave didn't save you."_

And right before Wally had passed out from the blood loss, he had remembered the look on Robin's face just as the bo-staff had come down.

To him it had looked much more like the desperate plea of someone just trying to get him to stop, then from a psychopath simply trying to get him out of the way.

Wally never had been able to stop... even when it was for his own good.

Not that it changed much. Even if Robin had a reason behind his actions it didn't make shattering his kneecap or ripping his feet to shreds with Joker commissioned novelty spikes any less horrible in Wally's eyes.

But Robin never did _anything_ without a good reason for it.

-Jump City General Hospital-

(ICU)

The unconscious boy on the hospital bed was obvious having a nightmare.

Talking in his sleep he was calling out someone's name but whatever he was muttering was lost in his cold sweats and constant shaking as he seemed to try to fight off a enemy only he could see.

Reaching over Kid Flash so she could change his IV the night nurse took one sad look at the boy and shook her head in pity.

The child looked barely old enough to drive and yet he had endured more blunt force trauma to his body then most grown man twice his size could handle.

"r...rob...Rob...in..." The red headed quivered from under her, his eyelids squeezing tighter together in a mix of pain and fear before they shot open.

Green eyes flashing the boy reached out and called out Robin's name, instantly rising to a sitting position and nearly knocking the nurse off her feet as he was jolted back into consciousness. Lightly gasping the teen looked around his surroundings with bleary eyes, dazed and confused as he searched blindly in the unfamiliar room for the phantom he had been chasing in his nightmare.

"Honey, calm down." The nurse explained once his grip on her lab coat softened and he came out of it enough to realize she wasn't the person he was looking for, "You're in the hospital."

Blinking the boy rubbed his tired eyes as she continued to gently reassure him he was safe, "There was an accident, your friends say you took the brunt of most of the trauma..."

"_That's_ the understatement of the century... " Wally winced bringing a hand to his throbbing head now that he was awake enough to find himself fighting against his equilibrium and the hospital drugs.

Having heavy narcotics in your system and getting up too fast did not make for a good time.

"How'd I get _here_ though?" The quicksilver youth asked, "The last thing I remember was Titan's island being torn apart like WWIII-"

"Your friends brought you in, I'm afraid I don't know anymore of the details than that." The nurse said before she tried to get him back on his back, "Lie back down, you must be in a incredible amount of pain. We literally only brought you out of surgery _fifteen_ minutes ago. I'm amazed you're this coherent after the amount of anesthesia we had to use..."

White hot pain shooting up his legs and knee now that he was coming out of his drug induced stupor, Kid Flash really _was_ starting to feel it all again.

The woman went on about the medical procedure and asked about insurance and who they should put down as his contact information but KF was really only listening to the lady's every third word. But once terms like "surgery" and "anesthesia" passed through her lips the boy immediately mustered up the courage to tear the sheets off his body and get a good look at the damage that had been done.

And though he was bandaged with more gauze and braces than a mummy, Kid Flash quickly found he could breathe again. All his body parts looked like they were all still in their proper places.

"Phew!" The super speedster muttered in exasperation putting a hand on his heart as he flew backwards into the bed board in pure relief. "Oh holy hole in a donut, Batman! The way you were going on about the surgery really had me worried there for a minute. You know you need to work on your bedside manner."

"Well **anyone** _else_ would have been an oil smear on the pavement, Kid Flash. It's incredible how quickly your body is healing," The nurse replied, "Even with the multiple lacerations, not to mention the sheer number of ligaments we had to tear to get to your kneecap and the endroprosthesis-"

"The what?" Kid Flash asked nonchalantly as he climbed out of bed.

"We had to replace part of your kneecap with an artificial-" Cutting herself off she screamed, "Just _what_ are you _doing_? Get back in bed this instant!" The nurse exclaimed as the boy searched the room for his missing uniform.

"Oh." The boy said with a slight pause glancing down at his bandaged knee. "I... I see... a prosthetic kneecap huh?"

Biting back a sigh he fought the rancid feeling seeping into his stomach.

Guess he didn't walk away from this battle with all his body parts after all...

But he could get angry about that later.

Right now he just had to make sure the others were alive...

"So am I hot or cold or what?" The redheaded youth asked her after a few seconds of mourning his loss. Darting from one corner of the room to the other in search of his costume, he turned back to her and pointed to his medical gown, "I can't really save the day in this thing. It's a little drafty in the back door department."

"You can't be serious! You're in no condition to leave this hospital." The woman stammered. "Even a superhero has a _limit _to how much of a pain threshold they have."

Testing out his newly fixed legs, Kid Flash tried to hide the fact he was still a little wobbly as he flashed the woman a smile. Something he blamed mostly on the morphine since he still felt groggy and mildly nauseous.

Being drugged was just a small footnote compared to how raw and sore his feet felt from under him.

But he'd have time to work out the rest of the kinks while he was on his way back to Titan's Tower.

"Guess for all this speed I'm just slow in the head then, Toots." Flash retorted.

Glaring at him the nurse had her hand on the security button and Wally realized she didn't find his callous dismissal of pain nearly as charming as he had hoped she would. One more wrong move and he would be seconds away from having most of the security staff barge in here.

"Look if it'll make you feel better I'll come back once I make sure everyone is okay." The boy exclaimed with a cheesy smile as he offered up the dumbest joke he could think of on the spot, "You could say I'll be back in a _flash-" _

The look on her face obvious it was an instant dud KF hung his head in shame, "Yeah, sorry... that was lame even for me."

"Well it's obvious I can't stop you if you have your mind set on leaving. But if I agree to let you go do you promise you'll quit with the bad puns?" The nurse asked with a cocked eyebrow.

"Lady, if you let me out of here I'm prepared to become the strong silent type." Kid Flash answered.

Glancing at the clock the nurse sighed and moved to one of the cabinets before she threw the tattered remains of the boy's costume at him.

"Thanks!" The boy exclaimed, "You're a stand up gal, doll-face."

Marching up to the slender youth and jabbing a finger in his bony chest plate the nurse looked fairly terrifying as she threatened, "The day shift security team doesn't switch out for another two hours, so if you're going to get out of the hospital I'd use the fire escape on the south end. And if _anyone_ finds out that I just let you waltz out of here I swear I'll bust open your _other_ kneecap, you hear me son?"

"I'll take it to my grave, ma'am." Kid Flash swore raising his right hand.

Walking out in a huff the woman just shook her head and slammed the door behind her grumbling until she was well out of ear-range, "Kids these days just aren't right in the head... wearing their underwear on the outside of their clothes, smacking up bad guys, I swear it's all that TV and the hip hop music-"

"Aw, what a nice lady." KF mused to himself as he quickly changed.

To be continued...


	34. Old Wounds

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 34: Old Wounds

"_The first person I ever revealed my identity to was Dick Grayson. Maybe because he was almost the same age I was my when parents were murdered. I wanted to make a difference in his life, the way my parents, if they had lived would have made in mine. Through the years I've debated whether or not it was fair of me to take him in. Train him. But I've learned that Dick wasn't like me. He didn't come from a world of privilege. He was a performer, gifted in that way. And while at the the time his transition away from Gotham was... difficult for us both it was a day I had long prepared myself for because... Dick was born to be in the center ring."_

_Batman_

-Jump City-

(Main Street)

It was an interesting sight for a Tuesday morning.

The sun wasn't even really up yet and to many it was still considered way too early for someone to even attempt crawling out of bed. So in most cases the park would usually be empty around this time of morning; save for a few dedicated joggers and the average street vendor setting up their stand for the day.

But unlike most days, today a small crowd of curious bystanders had gathered around a hot dog stand in the Main Street Park to watch as a half naked superhero, covered from waist to toe with bandages and gauze consumed nearly 3x his weight in hot dogs.

Not that Kid Flash really minded the gawking. And once he was satisfied he had enough hot dogs shoved into both arms that they would last him for at least ten minutes he awkwardly waddled back to a nearby park bench and continued his conversation with the little old lady that had been waiting for him.

"Sorry for the delay, Phyllis." The boy apologized, "So what were you saying?"

"I was just telling you that Freddy's acting like a madmen these days." The old lady exclaimed as she dived back into her spouts of juicy gossip, "And I'm at my wits end about what to do with him."

Nodding the boy paused to shovel mouthfuls of food into his mouth and wiped a trail of mustard off his chin before responding, "You shouldn't have to put up with that Phyllis, he knew you were a live wire when he decided to marry you. And it's like my girlfriend always says, 'if he doesn't want to take you out then he can't get upset if other gentlemen come a calling.'" Grinning the boy blushed and admitted, "I'll let you in on a little secret. I have two left feet when it comes to anything other than running but my girl's got this real thing for the club scene. So I had to learn the hard way that if I didn't want her grinding up against someone else, I had to get my tail out on the dance floor. Besides it's _really_ bad luck to get on her bad side."

The boy was going to say more when the peace and quiet of the park was interrupted as a sonic boom washed over the area. A dark shadow instantly blotted out the sun before the tree-line was replaced with a black, sleek shadow that rendered him and most of bystanders into slack mouthed silence. Kicking up debris and dust as the infamous Batwing landed on a nearby soccer field Kid Flash got to his feet and let out a sigh before he threw a wink at the little old lady, "Sorry, Phyllis but I think we're going to have to pick up on this up next time. I'm pretty sure that's my ride."

The jet door sliding open Batman emerged soundlessly from vehicle as his black mantle spilled out in the early dawn; the wraith like form of the Grim Avenger a jutting contrast to Jump City's vibrant atmosphere.

And it was obvious from the gaping mouths of most of the residents that this really wasn't _his_ kind of town.

Every syllable dripping with authority the stoic Dark Knight motioned to the boy with a single gloved hand, "Get in the plane."

"In a minute, don't get your tights in a twist." Kid Flash muttered giving the Caped Crusader a crabby glare of his own, "I'm not just standing around here for my health you know. Well... _actually_ I _am._ But that's sort of the point." Pointing to his lower torso he explained, "In case your detective skills didn't pick up on the body cast you'll notice that I got my butt whooped pretty badly while you were dealing with things in Gotham. And since I didn't want to run back to Titan's Tower on an empty tank just to get my hams handed to me all over again I'm recharging the old batteries and giving my stitches some time to set."

"Your stitches can set on the way, I said 'get **in**.'" Batman ordered for the second time as he towered over the boy.

The menacing shadow of the fearful Batman washing out what little light managed to seep through the morning air; Wally threw his hands up in surrender and instantly caved, "Maybe I'll just get in the plane then."

Grown men weren't immune to that frigid death stare the way Dick was and rather than face Batman's looming wrath Kid Flash quickly made a scramble for the jet. Climbing in the boy was aiming for shotgun, a plan he had to quickly abort as he skid to a halt in the attempt to stop himself from flopping into the large pair of breasts that were currently occupying the passenger's side.

"Put on the breaks will ya pip-squeak, before you bust something else! And hands off the merchandise." Harley barked catching him by one of his ear bolts before he landed in her lap face first.

"Bats, what the heck is _she _doing here?" KF exclaimed pointing at the mad clown girl then back to Batman with a look that had implied the Caped Crusader had finally lost it. "Isn't she a part of the dastardly gang of super creeps that turned everything upside down in the first place?"

"That's not important right now." Batman answered stoically as he started the engine.

"Look Big Guy, I understand that it might be slim pickings out there as far as partners go these days but that doesn't mean you should just settle for the first pair of tights that applies for the gig!" Kid Flash murmured once they were off the ground, "I mean you have options! And let's not forget that this chick is packing some serious mental health problems here!"

"It seems to be the trend around here." Was all he got in reply.

Leaning back in his chair Kid Flash blew out of a puff of air in a final huff and decided to shut up.

Batman was a frigid gargoyle on even the best of days but now... he barely seemed human.

You'd never guess it by looking at him, unless you were a detective or in KF's case someone who knew most of Batman's personality quirks through years of petty complaints courtesy of his teenaged sidekick.

So with that said Wally didn't really need a P.I. badge to know just how badly Robin's betrayal was getting to the big guy.

"Boy, kid what happened to _you_?" Harley couldn't help but gawk, interrupting the tense silence when the boy began unwrapping some of his bandages, "You look like you just crawled out of a blender."

"Close but no cigar, sugar britches!" The boy exclaimed snapping his fingers,"But I _did _run into an arsenal of military grade childhood abandonment issues made _special_ by your boy toy. You know I never appreciated how truly sick you wackos up at Arkham were until now. You'd think a good old death ray or even a sound cannon would suffice but oh no, let's make jacks the size of land mines!" Voice dripping with sarcasm he exclaimed, "I mean where do you find these guys, Bats? That clown of yours not only _went_ to the crazy buffet, he filled his plate and went back for seconds!"

Glancing at the boy's severe injuries from the corner of his eyes Batman could already make out thousands of small incisor shaped wounds that covered the youth's legs from calf to toe. Never mind the ugly black bruising and the Frankenstein like stitches stretching across the speedster's knee.

Barry would never forgive him for letting something this serious happen to the boy.

Catching Batman's glance Kid Flash offered him a comforting smile, "Jeez, don't look so worried, Bats. Besides it's kinda creepy seeing that expression on you." Thumping on his knee he added, "It's all a lot more ugly than it is serious. And besides it's not like this is permanent. You know _I_ never... scar up the way..." Trailing off he realized too little too late that he had brought up the wrong subject in a foolish attempt to sound braver than he actually felt.

"... the way Robin does." He finished in a hushed voice. Rubbing his neck apologetically Wally cringed, "Sorry, Batman. I didn't mean anything by that."

"Never mind." The Grim Avenger answered as his stony expression never faltered. "But you can start being useful by telling us what's been happening up until now."

Meanwhile...

-Titan's Tower-

(South Entrance)

Jericho awoke to a burning sensation filling his nostrils. Weakly raising his head up from the barren ground he let out a muffled choke as dirt and ash stung at his mouth and eyes.

At his feet the broken remains of a syringe lay beside him as a cruel reminder that all his effort up until now had been for naught.

And despite everything he had done to protect his little sister from the monsters of their childhood, that man had still managed to corrupt her.

That madman from his nightmares that always managed to strip him of everything that ever mattered.

He felt sick.

Feverish and suddenly intensely claustrophobic Jericho was overcome with the instant need to escape from the burning sensation tearing through the very air. Clawing at his turtle neck Joey ripped at the sides until the fabric gave way and some small ounce of relief hit his burning skin in the form of bitter wind.

It felt like there was acid in the pit of his stomach, and no matter how much air he rushed in his lungs he just couldn't breathe...

Everything was on fire again, the only thing he could taste was blood and the toxic stench of war and despair.

On the verge of a panic attack Joey fought with his body and dug his hands into the ground trying to find to the strength to crawl up from the dirt.

He just had to keep breathing.

The contents of the broken ample coursing through his system, Joey's whole body tingled as though every capillary in his circulatory system had fallen asleep at the same time. It was constructing and only added to the laundry list of pain he was currently experiencing but the boy was infinitely more concerned with finding the whereabouts of his attacker.

Things were turning out just like before... everything was turning out just like _that_ day...

That one bad day when he had lost everything...

Only this time it was all his fault.

He had been too weak.

It seemed he was _always_ too weak to stop his precious things from being broken...

Dropping his hand from the ripped remains of his collar Jericho's bare flesh revealed an ugly scar that sliced its way around the boy's throat from one end to the other. Aphotic, distorted tissue tattooed the area from his jugular to his larynx, and though the mangled wound had long since healed over by time it did little to blot out it's jarring and downright unsightly appearance.

Once he had calmed down enough so that his lungs no longer felt like they would collapse from the inside, Joey instantly regretted his foolishness.

There was a reason he never wore anything other than a turtleneck.

He never wanted anyone to see the disfiguring wound that mutilated his neck.

Especially not the Titans, the last thing he wanted was for them to have a reason to _pity_ him.

But the damage had been done and right now appearances were the least of his worries.

Getting to his feet shakily Jericho looked all but possessed as the darkness in his eyes seemed to have expanded to encompass more of his face like shadows stretching away from the setting sun.

Raising his half dead eyes up the youth set his sights towards the rabid dogfight Slade and Robin were all but engaged in.

Jericho was done with trying to find contentment in karma, in placing false hope in forgiveness but most of all... most of all he was just so tired of being weak.

And there was a _lot_ that Joseph Wilson had endured over the years.

His father standing idly by while a crazed terrorist slit his throat when had only been seven years old was just a small footnote in the twisted dynamics of the Wilson family's fun filled past.

But Jericho could forgive his father for allowing him to become crippled, from failing to stop the assailant from slicing his vocal cords and rendering him a mute for years. Thanks to the recent growth in his powers and the constant encouragement from the Teen Titans to get a handle on his psychic abilities; Jericho had become strong enough in recent years to manipulate the air in his larynx long enough to allow him to recreate sounds that could almost count for whispers as long as he concentrated hard enough. It had been a long and hard road, but words had finally been given back to Joey after nearly a decade of silence.

And though it had been _much_ harder... Jericho had even learned to forgive his father for his mother's death.

Solace in mediation, redemption through prayer and peace from reflection... Joey had spent a life time trying to prove to himself that he would not be manipulated by the rancid blood that ran through his veins. Just because his family had lived a life dedicated to misery and blood shed didn't mean he had to.

And yet Rose had been the only pure thing the word 'Wilson' could still be attached to.

Ruined just like everything else.

Maybe one _couldn't_ run away from their heritage after all.

As Jericho bore down on the image of Slade his eyes turned pitch with hatred as his drew out his powers up from the depths of his consciousness.

There was no more room for forgiveness left in Joey's heart after this.

Not even for himself.

So if Deathstroke the Terminator wanted murderers and monsters so badly, then it was high time Joey started living up to the _family_ name.

-Jump City-

(Airspace)

"It probably means he's rerouted the missiles." Batman concluded once he had finished listening to Kid Flash's story. "If Robin intentionally tried to inject all of us with the ionic neutralizers it means he's expecting one of them to come in close contact with Titan's Tower. It's the only explanation as to why he would spend that much effort vaccinating you all."

"But the tower's too far away from the mainland to spread that brain melting virus. If Robin detonates one of Slade's missiles there, wouldn't it put a damper on the whole plan to wipe out most of Jump City?" Kid Flash asked.

"Then we should assume he's not trying to wipe out Jump City." Batman deduced, lost in the heart of the situation. "Which means we'll have to find his real targets when we hack into the computer's I/O system back at Slade's lair."

"But Robin still has a detonator with him back on the island," Kid Flash countered, "What good will finding the computer do us if he can still set off the countdown thingy via remote?"

"Insurance." The Dark Knight answered, "In case we have to diffuse them manually."

Paling at the thought of having to diffuse three SS-23 Spider missiles by hand Wally clawed his face and groaned, "Man... I was afraid you were going to say that."

Meanwhile...

-Titan's Tower-

(South Corridor)

"Can't _believe_ I'm stuck here watching my tower crumble to the ground while I'm babysitting a crazed kindergärtner who probably wants to kill me..." Cyborg grumbled as he and the small girl at his side marched towards the door at the end of the evacuation tunnel.

Glancing at the child it was obvious she could hear him but she didn't seem to mind as he continued to blurt out his frustrations. Finally when he couldn't stand hearing the sound of his own voice as the sole object of distraction in a tense situation he asked, "So why exactly are you going along with all of this? You can't possibly tell me you actually _like _hanging out with mental cases like Slade and the Joker."

"I _hate_ Mr. Slade and the Joker." The girl said defiantly before she pleasantly corrected him, "But I _like_ Robin a whole bunch!"

Rubbing his temples in exasperation Cyborg sighed and nodded, "Yeah, yeah... a lot of chicks end up liking Robin. Don't ask me _why_."

"Well don't you like Robin, Mr. Cyborg?" Rose said with a pause. "He is your friend isn't he?"

Taking a deep breath Cyborg had to seriously ponder that one for a minute.

He was beyond angry with the spiky haired little know-it-all.

First chance he got he swore was going to pummel his former leader with the T-car; considering they ever managed to get out of there alive.

But to actually _hate_ Robin...

Swallowing a lump in his throat Cyborg shook his head already knowing the answer, "No. I don't hate him, Rose. At times like this it would sure make things easier." Lowering his eyes he murmured, "We've butted heads in the past though. I figure few people can raise my blood pressure the way Robin can. But... now that he's gone, I honestly _miss_ fighting with the guy."

"Why do you guys fight so much?" Rose asked curiously.

"'_Why' _huh? That's a little harder to break down," Cyborg confessed, "Guess if I had to put it in black and white I'd say a lot of it just has to do with guy stuff. We're both alpha males, that whole 'lead not not follow package'." Seeing the somewhat blank look on the little girl's face the robotic teen faltered, "You'll understand when you're older, kid. Trust me."

"So he's a rival?" The white haired girl offered, "Like the guys in comic books!"

"Yeah, guess that's one way of putting it." Cyborg agreed as he scratched his cheek, "It doesn't help that I don't always like taking orders from someone half my height who _used_ to wear pixie boots."

Giving her a small smile the older boy added, "But Robin's my friend. So I don't have to _like_ everything about the guy to know that he'll always have my back. He's never once let me down." Getting quiet Cyborg felt a pang in his chest as he corrected, "Well... until now anyways..."

"Y'know Robin told me that Batman warned him once that sometimes, sometimes despite fighting your best there's simply nothing you can do to save someone." Rose replied her doll like eyelashes lowering, "Robin said at the time that he just nodded but he didn't really believe him. He didn't even think Batman really believed it. 'Nobody's helpless', Robin thought. 'Nobody's totally without resources.'" Hugging her chest the white haired girl whispered, "But he was wrong, Mister Cyborg. Some people just aren't worth saving."

"Now I can't accept that." Cyborg replied coldly, quickening his pace as he found himself angered by her words.

"But what if Robin really does set off the missiles and destroys those cities? Hundred thousands of lives will be gone just like _that_." Rose ventured, picking up her own pace though she was no match for his longer legs and was quickly falling behind. "Would _he_ be worth saving then? If he becomes someone as bad as Mr. Joker?"

Silence.

"Well _would_ he be, Mister Cyborg?" Rose pressed as she stomped her foot.

Almost stopping cold Cyborg's back was rigid as he snapped, "I don't _know, _okay?"

Slamming his fist into the side of the wall the heavy frame tore and crunched under his fingers as he let his frustration get the better of him. Rage overruling his actions the pressure from his monstrous strength ripped through the tunnel, almost sending the little girl crashing to the ground by the sheer force of the backlash.

Of course Cyborg instantly regretted his actions.

Guilt washing over him the cybernetic youth recoiled in child-like terror, the fear of his robotic strength getting out of hand quickly overriding his anger at the situation.

Clutching his hand in shame the boy looked disgusted with himself as he muttered, "I just don't know."

There was a shaky silence between the two before the white haired girl finally reached over and gently patted his hand. "I'm sorry, Mister Cyborg." She whispered tightly knotting his robotic fingers through hers, "I had no right to ask you a question that has such a big answer. It's okay if you don't know."

Stroking his hand she repeated, "It's okay."

Flinching Cyborg couldn't help but be surprised at the simple act of kindness.

And despite his best efforts to figure her out he still wasn't sure if this kid was insane, evil or just plain weird. After all she kept changing personalities like a person changes underwear.

But still... there was something strangely haunting about her words. And no matter how far they walked, the ghost of her question lingered long after they reached the tunnel's exit.

Meanwhile...

-Jump City-

(Entrance)

Times like this Robin almost missed Bruce's presence. The flap of his cape as the boy caught a simple nod or a movement of his eyes as they'd decide right then and there whose faces they were gonna devote their fists and feet to first.

Things sure were easier back then... back when he had still believed in heroes.

The youth managed to resist the momentum transferred to him by Slade's uppercut just in time to avoid crashing into the decimated remains of a boulder.

But just barely.

He threw himself out of the way, sloppily avoiding the rock and crashing unceremoniously into the dirt. The wind ripped out from his insides the boy let out a muffled choke as he fought with the radiating pain shooting through his lungs. Digging his hands into the loose earth it was all the young man could do to keep himself from slumping into the mud like a beaten dog.

Slade didn't wait for him to catch his breath, and it was mere seconds before the assassin's fists slammed into the boy with the force of a wrecking ball.

Instantly a rib gave way and Robin could hear the sick cracking as it shattered from within him.

Rolling a few feet away from Slade, the youth somersaulted to a near crouching position before his legs buckled and gave out from underneath him. Falling to his knees Robin tried to force back a bitter laugh as his vision blurred.

His body felt so heavy... it wasn't doing what he wanted it to.

Though it probably didn't help that he was losing blood at an almost obscene rate, not to mention the severity of the burns on his arms and legs were more than likely sending him into hypovolaemic shock.

Even with the stamina of a madman, Robin knew he only had a few minutes of fight left in him before he'd succumb to his injuries.

Though it looked like Slade would finish him off before that happened.

Pain searing through the boy's skull Robin was brought out of his half daze as rough hands ripped at the teen's scalp and forced him up into to a half sitting position.

Pausing for only a second it didn't take much to come to the understanding that Slade was a mercenary to the end. And as a cold metal barrel was brought to the boy's temper Robin realized that he was going to be given an executioner style death.

Death staring him blankly in the face, Robin glared up at the old mercenary and smirked, "_Master_, you still didn't teach me that lesson you said you were going to. Not to mention killing me with a gun's pretty cliche, even for _you_." Eyes narrowing he asked, "What happened to all that talk about being a 'different kind of criminal'?"

"I'm afraid you've left me with little choice, Robin. Now give me the detonator." Slade ordered his young apprentice, as he causally removed the device from the boy's utility belt.

"I already told you that one is just as worthless as yours is. It's just a decoy." Robin replied with a smile, "The real one is in the Teen Titan's hands. Only they're too busy trying to stop their Tower from being destroyed to notice it."

"What...?" Slade asked blankly.

What on earth would possess the four do-gooders to possibly go along with Robin's evil plan?

Good eye widening the man suddenly realized there was a way to infiltrate their party so that they didn't have to.

"_Rose_." The assassin snarled as he bore down on Titan's Tower with all the fury of a man facing hell.

"Ding, ding, ding!" Robin practically gargled from within Slade's choke hold. Eyes bright with a mix of discomfort and amusement he chided, "Tell him what he's won, Johnny-"

Slade's boot rupturing the boy's insides however quickly silenced whatever joke the Teen Wonder had attempted.

Blood spurting out of the boy's mouth, Robin would have crumpled to a fetal position if Slade hadn't been firmly holding his hair.

But if he was in agonizing pain he wasn't doing a very good job of showing it.

Shakily bringing a hand up to wipe the oozing red splotches off his face Robin fought back a chuckle. His bloody lip set in a amused smirk the Teen Wonder looked as cocky about the situation as if _he _were the one holding the gun to someone's head.

But the final insult came in the form of the boy casually spitting out a loose tooth before he raised his head and asked, "How does it feel to know you've been completely outsmarted by an ungrateful brat?"

And it was there in the boy's burning blue eyes that insanity truly seemed to take human form.

"Three minutes, Slade." Robin teased as he leaned closer to the gun barrel, "Which means you can do your worst, you'll still never make it off the island in time. And it really won't change the fact that _I _won._"_

"That may be, Grayson," Slade replied stepping back to take a good look at the boy. "That may be."

Deathstroke the Terminator had learned long ago that you're always responsible for the things you create; and the monster at his hand would be no exception to that.

"But then, I never **have** been a very good sport." The man retorted.

Right before he squeezed the trigger.

To be continued...


	35. Justice

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 35: Justice

"_All men have something to hide. The brighter the picture the darker the negative."_

_Rupert Thorne_

-Titan's Tower-

(Main Entrance)

You know the funny thing about a laser is that it isn't really hot. But when you utilize lasers for destructive purposes a magnifier inside the said weapon will use chlorine gas and mix with hydrogen peroxide resulting in a chemical reaction that creates highly energetic oxygen molecules. Pressurized nitrogen then pushes the oxygen through a fine mist of iodine, forcing the energy behind all that to take the form of intense light.

So while that little flash isn't much to make you worry on its own, it's the force behind it that can heat up a laser's _target_ to incredible degrees in a matter of mere seconds.

Making anything organic or combustible that comes in contact with it little more than flaming pile of char and ash.

Which was why the shot shouldn't have missed.

Slade was already in point blank range and the gun would have made perfect contact with the boy's skull even if it hadn't been in the hand's of one of the world's most feared assassins.

But it never got the chance to connect.

A black shadow seeped up from the earth the moment the shot rang out swallowing the laser as all the light in the area was masked out by the physic pull of Raven's powers. Taking the shape of her signature form the massive shape of a bird encompassed the boy as Raven protected him from any of the other shots that might follow.

None did.

Because in that same instant a tan blur flew past the two as Starfire vaulted into Slade with the intensity of a freight train. Locking the villian in a bear hug the Tamarian proceeded to slam him through the foundation of the Titan's main entrance, collapsing the large doors as if they were nothing more than a house of cards.

"You have hurt my friends!" The alien snarled as she slammed her conjoined fists across the side of Slade's face with a force that would put a sledgehammer to shame. "You have endangered innocent lives!" She added bringing her knuckles down on the crown of his head.

"And you _will _not **touch** Robin again." Starfire finished her green eyes flashing as she towered over the assassin who lay buried in the falling debris.

"Woah." Raven could help but utter as she and Beast Boy watched in awe as the Tamarian all but pummeled their foe into the steel framing.

"Dude, are you okay?" The green teenager asked quickly shaking himself out his daze as he managed to pull Robin to a standing position.

A little dumbstruck Robin was silent as his former teammates lifted him up.

Tucking under the larger boy's arm the changeling at his side tried to help Robin take some weight off his injuries, gingerly avoiding the torn flesh and scalding burns that littered the teen's skin. "Can you walk?" He asked before Robin's fist connected with the side of his face, sending him reeling into the ground.

Crashing into the dirt, Beast Boy was amazed that someone that beat up could still punch that hard.

Dredging up strength from places most normal people couldn't fathom the Titan's leader was back on his feet and standing tall as if nothing had happened.

Shaking off the splattered specs of the green boy's blood from his hand Robin glared down at his friend before his lips curled into a mocking smirk.

"I never said I needed your help." Robin stated as he watched his younger teammate struggle to pick himself up off the dirt, "And I'm not on your side, remember?"

"Hey, we just saved your butt!" Beast Boy snarled as he used the back of his hand to nurse his split lip. "How about a little gratitude?"

"Thanks." Robin said with all the sarcasm he could muster."Even _I_ didn't think you guys were this pathetic."

"Pathetic or not did you really think we were just going to stand around and watch him kill you?" Raven retorted standing defensively in between her former leader and Beast Boy as he got back on his feet.

"I could have handled it." The black haired youth answered stubbornly, sounding so much like his old self it was painful.

Eyes narrowing the dark empath forced down the urge to upper cut the former Titan as she spat, "Look we _know_ about the ionizers, Robin. So you might as well drop the act and tell us what you're really planning."

But he wasn't listening to them at this point.

Completely ignoring the Titans, Robin leisurely walked over to the unconscious form of Slade before lightly kicking his arm.

No response.

Bending down the boy decided to get a little closer, returning the favor Slade had dealt him earlier by lifting the assassin's head up by the scruff of his mask. Not satisfied that the skull in his hands lay limp and motionless Robin decided to sucker punch the assassin a few times.

A precautionary measure if you will, one to make sure Slade was really staying down this time.

"DUDE!" Beast Boy snarled in exasperation as he watched the Boy Wonder take out his revenge on Slade's half dead body.

Sighing Robin looked over his shoulder, throwing one more punch before he was finally satisfied.

"You'll forgive me if I say no, right?" The boy replied with playful mirth, "I'm not in the same class of bad guy this piece of trash is. And the whole cat and mouse thing just doesn't quite do it for me."

"Then you're not putting us in a great position," Raven sighed as she ensnared the boy in the same wave of energy that had saved his life moments earlier. "Because like it or not, you're talking."

Wrapping her black magic around Robin's arms and torso like a straight jacket the dark empath raised him a few feet off the air, knowing that little extra leverage would make it all the more difficult to escape her grasp. And it would be hard enough to keep him tied up for long.

But unlike the first time they had fought, Robin went down a lot easier than she expected.

In the few short seconds that he had been suspended in the air, blood was already trickling down his legs and making a unsightly puddle on the ground below him. Not to mention the burns sprouting over his limbs looked bad enough to need skin grafts.

With injuries like the ones he was sporting, it was amazing the Boy Wonder even had the strength to move.

But the look in those glowing blue eyes made it obvious there was still more than enough fight left in the boy.

"Please Robin... stop this, before it is too late." Starfire pleaded as she looked up at him.

Not answering her the boy simply gave her a warm smile, taking small pleasure in watching their misery.

"Guess you're going to have to force it out of me." He said with a light challenge.

Glaring at him Raven hoped she looked a lot more fierce than she really felt as she bore down on him. The thought of what diving into his madness could do to her own powers and emotions terrified her but Robin wasn't giving them very many options. Reaching out to touch his forehead the demon girl took a deep breath and prepared herself for the worst.

Only Joey's small hand caught hers before she could go any further.

Shaking his head the boy's eyes were ugly and filled with a darkness she had never seen in him before but every inch of his body screamed with a strange sense of forcefulness.

"I'll do it." The boy's broken voice choked as he tightened his grip on her wrist and raised her hand off of Robin.

"Are you sure, Joey?" Raven asked in surprise. Normally Jericho was so passive, so gentle he almost came off as weak and that made it all the more unnerving to see such animosity radiating from the younger Titan.

In fact he seemed almost as unstable as Robin was at this point.

Without an answer Joey pushed the pale girl's hand back and rushed Robin clutching the older boy by the tattered remains of his uniform.

"Where is my little sister?" Jericho asked the monster he had helped create. "If you've hurt her I swear I'll-"

But the threat didn't go over the way he had planned.

"HAHAHAHAHA."

Interrupting Joey's valiant speech the Boy Wonder's eerie laughter rang through out the area.

"What cheesy movie did you pick up that stupid line from?" Robin asked as he squeezed his eyes shut in pure amusement, "We both know you don't have the guts to follow through with any kind of actual threat. You're too afraid of proving Slade right."

Fury radiating through the younger boy's body Jericho didn't wait for Robin to finish. Locking eye contact with the insane youth Joey's body instantly melted away into nothingness as he was sucked into Robin's subconscious.

-Robin's Mind-

Now the recesses of the mind are a strange thing. They can be a vast labyrinth or small prison depending on the circumstances and the person.

And they say the mind has a defense mechanism when it comes to physical and emotion trauma.

It let's you forget.

"_So how long have you known about me?" _Joey couldn't help but ask once he and the Boy Wonder were alone together in the dark precipice, far away from where the other Titans could reach them.

"_About two months after you joined the team." _Robin answered as he felt his friend search the icy darkness for the evil plan the Boy Wonder was keeping just out of reach. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Joey was just stalling; trying to keep his mind occupied with stupid questions so he could look for the real information without interference.

But for now Robin didn't see the harm in playing along with the boy.

"_Deathstroke the Terminator didn't always used to be so obsessed with hiding his identity. He only started with the criminal genius bit __**after **__he quit the mercenary for hire business. Once I traced him back to his former alias, I got his name along with a marriage certificate and three birth records. It wasn't hard to put the rest together after that." _Came Robin's explanation. _"... it sort of put a face on to why the guy was so driven to always find a apprentice. He was looking for a legacy he could leave behind because in a twisted way I think all Slade wanted was to have a son again."_

Ignoring that last part, Joey closed his eyes and focused on the task at hand. He couldn't think about any of that now.

"_Bravo, Robin. I guess I should have expected that from the guy who trained under the World's Greatest Detective." _Joey replied bitterly. _"But if you __**knew**__ about me... why did you still let me become a Titan? Why didn't you tell the others about my secret?"_

"_It wasn't my secret to tell." _The Boy Wonder said simply enough. His voice getting hard Robin added, _"And you're not the only person who's spent a lifetime trying to prove they're __**not **__their father."_

"_For what it's worth, thank you..." _Jericho whispered. _"But after everything that I've done to you... you're pretty crazy to still protect me like that."_

"_I __**am**__ crazy, that's for sure." _Robin chuckled nonchalantly. _"So since I'm doing you that favor and keeping certain identities a secret how about you let go of me now?"_

"_You know I can't do that." _The smaller boy said apologetically.

Unlike most of the common criminals he had possessed in the past Robin wasn't making it easy for him despite how chatty he was being.

It was obvious the teen had practice when it came to resisting forms of psychological warfare.

And even if that mental strength hadn't saved him from Slade's weapon, Robin was locking his mind up tighter than a cell block.

"_You can't? Or won't?"_ The black haired boy wanted to clarify after a moment of silence.

Letting out a sigh Jericho telepathically responded, _"If I told you __**both**__, would you believe me?"_

"_Probably not." _The insane boy answered. _"I have a feeling some of this is payback for your little sister."_

"_I am sorry Robin... but it __**is**__ both." _Joey replied.

"_It's kind of hard for you to lie to me when you're inside my head, Joey." _Robin chuckled. _"I can tell how angry you are. And not without good reason. But you'll be happy to know I __**never**__ asked the kid to do any of this, she volunteered all on her own. So you can chalk it up to bad upbringing."_

"_Or bad taste in first crushes." _Joey shot back in annoyance before he corrected his friend, _"I'm really not mad at you though, Robin. Even if I wanted to be... __**I'm**__ the one that did this to you. I have no one to blame but myself. Which is exactly why I'm going to stop you."_

"_Pretty ambitious, Joe."_ The Boy Wonder applauded, _"Considering the time crunch you're looking at. I think you guys may have forgotten that I still have three laser cannons programmed to blast open the tower's central foundation in less than two minutes. So you might have me right where you want me, but in five minutes it still won't make any of you any less **dead**."_

… … … …

-Titan's Tower-

"Jo-Jo?" Beast Boy asked as he noticed a slight twitch in Robin's hand. "You in there?" Gently thumping the black haired boy's skull he murmured, "HELLOOOO. You're kinda scaring us here."

Black pitch washing out the normal scelera of a human eye, Robin's unholy blue pupils morphed and shifted until they turned into Joey's green. Weakly raising his head Joey bit back the pain that came with Robin's burns and secretly wondered how the Titan's leader had acted so nonchalantly about being as injured as he was.

"This was a lot harder than I thought it would be," Joey whimpered through Robin's mouth as he shakily took control of his motor skills, "But I think I've found the locations of the other targets." Forcing a temporary strangle hold on Robin's mind Jericho turned to his team-mates and exclaimed, "I can't stay in here for much longer but I'm pretty sure Robin's not targeting Gotham, Jump City or Metropolis. From what I _can_ piece out from his memories he's going to hit the two largest criminal holding facilities on the continent."

"Meaning what exactly?" Beast Boy asked.

Fear welling in the boy's throat Jericho stammered, "It means Robin's real targets are Arkham Asylum and Belle Reve Sanitarium."

"Belle Reve?" Starfire repeated not at all familiar with the term.

"It's a medical compound where more than half of the Justice League's villains wind up." Raven answered for her. "Think of it as a mad house for people with superpowers. And it's filled to the brim with some of the most dangerous people on the planet."

Swallowing the lump in his throat Beast Boy immediately chimed in, "No joke! Every super hero in the business has at least one or two arch-nemeses locked away in Belle Reve! And I don't think any of us need to get started on the wackos they have up in Arkham." Putting a hand on his head in exasperation the boy murmured, "So that means Robin's not really trying to destroy half the coastline. He's getting rid of every costumed bad guy in a 3000 mile radius!"

"Then we may also assume that he is saving the last missile for Slade." Starfire finished quietly.

"Yeah," Jericho agreed. "Robin planned this whole attack on Titan's Tower to make sure he had Slade right where he wanted him when the bombs went off. By injecting us with the temporary antidote he was giving us just enough time to get off the island before we were overwhelmed with nanobots ourselves. According to what I've seen in Robin's head the stuff in that shot isn't perfect, and it will only protect us from the disease for a certain amount of time."

"So..." Beast Boy drawled, "It didn't matter if he had to tear this place to the ground, Robin was going to make sure Slade never bothered anyone ever again. Even if it meant smashing our home apart to do it."

Moving to towards Robin's possessed body Starfire forced back the urge to grab him by the shoulders and shake him until he relinquished a confession. "But why?" She asked, "He told Slade that he was going to get rid of all of humanity. I do not understand the need for such lies."

"It doesn't matter _why, _we still have to stop him." Raven retorted, "Even if they _are_ criminals we have no right to make choices over who gets to live and who gets to die. We need to get Batman on the communicator, with Kid Flash out of commission and Cyborg still in the tower there's no way we can stop all three missiles at once. This isn't how justice is supposed to work."

"That's the point, Raven." Robin's voice said from next to her. Looking back at the boy those soulless blue eyes had retaken their rightful place in the Boy Wonder's face. "Justice is a crock. That's why I'm getting rid of it."

Jericho's astral body all but erupted out of the older Titan an instant later; as even Joey didn't dare hold on to him for a second longer. Covered in sweat and panting as he reemerged onto the physical plane the blond physic was exhausted as it took every ounce of stamina he had just to crawl to a sitting position.

"What are you saying, Robin?" Raven asked coldly.

"I'm getting rid of justice." Robin repeated, "Just not in the way you might think. You see I've come to realize lately that evil only exists because people let it. How's that old saying go? 'The evil that men do lives on, though the good is oft interred with their bones.'" Dead, vacant eyes staring at his friends the boy reasoned, "I don't understand the rules anymore... all those reasons we spent fighting for this cause... I've tried so hard to remember the 'why' but I just _can't_. But I _do_ remember the pain that went with all that. I remember spending half my life watching psychopaths like the Joker kill hundreds maybe even thousands of people. I've watched mothers bury children, families torn apart by the everyday antics of deranged psychotics. And every time people like that are brought to 'justice' I've watched them stand before a grand jury and the _only_ thing the system ever does is slap them with some bogus insanity plea and cart them away to places like Arkham for 'rehabilitation'. Until the _next_ time they break out and go on more killing rampages, so they can leave more broken lives in the dirt. That's what justice really is, guys. It's a vicious cycle of cops and robbers that never solves anything. Because the system that all these heroes buy into... _doesn't_ work."

Letting out a weak laugh the Boy Wonder fought with the humor of the situation, "Don't you see? I finally get it now. I finally see how selfish Batman's oath not to kill really is. If he had just buried scum like the Joker from the start, all those murders might have been prevented. So what if he ends up corrupting his own morality! Isn't just one human life worth more to this world than the ego of a superhero?"

In between bouts of laughter, Robin lowered his head and just like that the joke was over. His voice as frigid as his eyes Robin muttered, "And that's why that kind of hypocrisy doesn't save anyone. Heroes who won't stop evil at it's source are just posers wearing kevlar. So _I'm_ going to do what the Justice League and Batman were too cowardly to do from the start. And if it means I can end all this here and now, than I'd rather wind up being a villain. I'll kill thousands and still wind up doing what they never could: I'll save the world. Even if I go down as just another criminal, at least what _I_ stand for is something more than a lie."

Meanwhile...

-Jump City-

(Airspace)

"Titan's Island. How far is it from the factory you mentioned earlier, Quinn?" Batman asked as they began to approach the southern coastline.

"About twenty miles that way," The harlequin said pointing out the window. "Why?"

"Because this is where we're parting ways." The Caped Crusader replied as he set the Batwing on auto-pilot and began to secure the metal fastenings of his jet pack onto his shoulders.

"What do you mean this is where we 'part ways'?" Harley exclaimed nearly barreling out of her seat when she realized he was leaving.

"You two find the super computer," Batman ordered, "I'm going after Slade and Robin. I've set the coordinates to land just off site of the slums you mentioned earlier." Turning to Kid Flash with a pencil thin smile the Dark Knight asked, "Think you can get back on the ground safely?"

"I'm sorry...?" Kid Flash stammered as the sudden realization of what Batman was asking him finally kicked in, "I'm not sure if the hospital drugs are making me hallucinate or if I really did die in that accident back there. D... did you just say I could _fly_ the Batwing?"

Moving to the control panel to lift release the sliding panel on the roof's top the Dark Knight made his exit. Turning back to the boy right as he took to the night sky Batman stated, "Radio me when you make contact with the mainframe. I've set all the system's long range kilohertz to the Titan's communicator frequency. And once you disable the system, get out. There's no doubt that Slade and Joker installed security measures that will try to prevent you from leaving."

"Y-you, you're kidding right?" The girl in the passenger's seat all but cried out as the Grim Avenger made his descent into the black darkness, "I can't even set the timer on my VCR, how the heck am I supposed to hack into that super doohickey?"

"Relax, candy legs." Kid Flash grinned as he climbed into the driver's seat, "I've got a enough science no how for the both of us. And if there's anyone who can bust into Robin's passwords other than the Big B over there, well you're looking at the guy."

"Oy vey," Harley sighed clawing at her face, "I can't believe Bat's is trusting the fate of world to a half naked cripple who can't even brake right. And people say Mistah J's crazy..."

"Hey!" Wally snapped, "I _heard_ that." Pointing a finger at the clown he had no tolerance for her sass, "But I am _not_ letting you ruin this for me, do you hear me missy?"

Coddling the steering wheel as though it were a beautiful woman Kid Flash had stars in his eyes as he took over the controls, "This is one of the single greatest moments of my life. I always promised myself that if this day ever came that I wouldn't cry." Burying his head in his elbow he choked, "So I'm not gonna to cry..."

"Yeesh, kid." The hench-wench at his side muttered, "I gotta tell ya with you in charge a one way ticket back to Arkham's sure starting to look good right about now."

To be continued...


	36. Memories of Better Days

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 36: Memories of Better Days

"_My father and Bruce both taught me similar moral codes, for vastly different reasons. Both considered their codes immutable, but somehow my dad's always expanded enough to let me grow into it. Whereas Batman's was, of course, completely inflexible, and every bit as inspiring as it was impossible. But still I wonder... who's son will I turn out to be?" _

_~Dick Grayson_

-Titan's Tower-

(Robin's Mind)

_Would it surprise you to know that this isn't the first time I've betrayed Batman? _

_Hard to believe now, even harder if you knew me back in the day._

_Back in the times when all I had ever believed in was his mission._

_But seven months after becoming Robin I got my first taste of hard reality, courtesy of Gotham's own former district attorney._

_And that's the big reason Two Face is just as much __**my**__ arch-nemesis as he is Batman's._

_Don't get me wrong, I'm not warm and fuzzy with any of Gotham's criminal underbelly or the league of psychopaths that make up Batman's Gallery of Rogues... b__ut Two Face seemed have it in for me from the __start__. __Almost as if subconsciously Harvey Dent __**knew**__ who I was under the mask, and he used me to lash out at Batman in some twisted way to get to Bruce Wayne._

_You see.. __I had only been legally placed at Wayne Manor for a few months when Harvey Dent took the dark descent into Two Face. So I remember the endless nights that dragged into weeks where Bruce scoured the city for his best friend, haunting every corner like a man possessed. And I took it to heart watching him suffer like that. I beat myself up over the fact there was nothing I could do to help him, nothing __**anyone**__ could do for him other than just go along for the ride and pray that Bruce would still be sane by the time it was over._

_There were times I even felt like maybe it was my fault, that if I hadn't been around to slow him down... maybe Bruce would have made it to that factory in time to stop him. That Two Face was my __punishment__ and one that I had to endure for Batman's sake. __Because it __wasn't__ fair that Batman had failed to save Harvey... and yet he had still saved __**me**__._

_Of course... now that I'm older I know I'm over analyzing this. That it was really just the guilt ridden trauma of a kid who was desperately trying to create a family out of a cave. _

_For the first two years I was Robin every waking moment I spent was nursing a hidden fear that all it would take was one wrong move, one misstep and Bruce would wake up and finally realize he was crazy and bam I'd be right back on the orphanage's front porch. _

_The problem is I __**am**__ human so when I __did__ slip up that first time... I didn't just misstep, I fell down three flights of stairs and landed on the highway at rush hour._

_Two days before Christmas and Harvey Dent set up a hostage situation that involved half of the Gotham socialites and their first born children. It was so high risk that even Batman ordered me to sit it out, knowing full well that goons callous enough to murder a room full of kids wouldn't think twice about shooting at **me**._

_But like an idiot I didn't listen to him... and even though I knew what death was at the time I still had a child's unrealistic grasp on the world._

_Before that night I had always thought I was untouchable._

_See the whole plan had actually been a surprise party for me from the start. Two Face had been waiting for the opportunity to use me as the fatal flaw in the Dark Knight's otherwise impenetrable armor. __Until I had shown up most people weren't even convinced he was __**human**__ and suddenly I made the Batman seem less supernatural._

_And when someone decides to take on a nine year old apprentice it usually means the kid has some emotional value to them, even if they're idea of parenting does just happen to be jumping from rooftop to rooftop and sending a child out to fight armed crooks. __So while the theories circulated from simple things like I was his son to the slightly more far-fetched rumors (and don't ask me about some of them, tabloids will print __**anything **__to sell papers...) __it was no secret that __Robin shed a mortal light on the grim stalwart Caped Crusader._

_Boy did Two Face try to show me how much I would live to regret that._

_He only took two hostages that night: me and the only adult that had been caught in the crossfire of Harvey's sick kidnapping plot, the honorable Judge Hatcher._

_My first memories of a Christmas Eve in Gotham didn't involve eggnog and carols. Instead I was dragged to one of the abandoned slaughterhouses by the docks, tied to a chair and forced to watch as Harvey made the judge play a game in exchange for his life._

_Thatcher lost the odds._

_Weights were tied to his hands and legs and he was thrown into the dark water without a second thought... _

_The only mistake that man had ever made was calling heads instead of tails._

_And he paid the ultimate price for it._

_Thatcher was a good man... a honest judge in a town where the law can be so easily bought... and he left behind two kids younger than I was..._

_That was the first time I failed to save someone._

_I wish I could say it would be the last..._

_Harvey Dent spent that night laughing in my face as I tore inches off my flesh in a desperate struggle to free myself in time to save the drowning man from the water. His goons then waited for the body to settle before they pulled the judge's bloated corpse out __of the brine and threw it at my feet._

_It wasn't long before I got my own taste of his twin .45 automatics... Two Face never could resist the chance to make someone test their luck at his coin toss. _

_And I landed four bullets total that night: two in one arm, one in the shoulder and the last one in the thigh. _

_To be honest I never have gotten a sense of love back for games of chance. Even now, there are times I can still smell the gunpowder from that night. Clinging to the air like a bad dream, one you never really stop being afraid of._

_Harvey waited until I was good and bleeding before kicking the chair out from under me and forcing me to all but hunch over the judge's dead body. _

_I think it would have been easier if I had cracked._

_If I had lost it and sobbed like the little kid I was, begged for mercy, shown the weakness he so desperately wanted to see... then maybe he might of spared me._

_But I wasn't just some punk kid._

_I had been chosen, I was **his **partner._

_And that was a right I had to prove to the world that I had earned._

_So that's when the baseball bat came out..._

_"You see, Harvey Dent was one of the good guys." Two Face explained to me as he all but proceeded to smash my head in. "Being good in this town means you need guts. You gotta' be tough. You gotta' do things that aren't in the law books. The bat didn't have the stomach for it. He punked out on Harvey. The great outlaw protector of Gotham hid behind Lady Justice's skirts. But she's blind for a reason, brat. 'Cause she doesn't see what needs to be done in her name."_

_I was barely conscious at this point, blood in eyes and my ears as I lay in a splattered heap dying. _

_But even then I never thought about death._

_Not when Batman had placed his faith in me, not after everything I had fought for._

_I still had big plans and none of them involved ending things there._

_There was one last thing Harvey said to me right before he tried to finish me off._

"_I wanted you to understand why this is happening to you, kid." Two Face had whispered, "Because before it's all over, I wanted you to know. It wasn't me that killed you. It was the __**bat**__."_

_... ... ..._

_I'm still here so you know Batman saved me before things got any uglier._

_And I __**never**__ saw him hit anyone the way he laid into his best friend that night. I'm surprised Harvey didn't get one of his faces ripped off._

_I'm not sure if I dreamed what happened next when Batman forced me to keep talking to him as he carried me out of the rotting building. Going to sleep with blunt force trauma like that normally spells permanent brain damage but... things were really fuzzy at that point so I'll never know for sure if it was real or just wishful thinking._

_Besides Batman's not the type of guy you can carry a heart to heart with when it comes to the night you almost died._

_But what he promised me then and whatever I said in return was what drafted me to be a solider in his never ending war._

_It's hard to describe faith. Growing up on the trapeze, faith was always believing that the bar would be there when you reached out for it. It was always knowing that someone would catch me if I ever fell._

_That was the night I decided to believe in that stuff again._

_The short, sweet happy ending to this tale was that I saved by my partner just like I always would be._

_But the ugly, reality filled longer version has to include the fact that I had to be intubated just to keep my throat from closing off from the swelling, my skull was fractured in three places and one of the gun shot entry wounds had nicked my femoral vein and I flat-lined twice before reaching the Batcave._

_Alfred patched me enough so that I could be transported before Leslie Thompkins saved my life that night... working in the dismal conditions of a ghetto clinic in Park Grove._

_**That**__ wouldn't be the last time that happened to me either..._

_Despite everything I just told you about war drafts and sacred vows it goes without saying that I was still fired from my position as Robin the second I was able to breathe without a tube._

_Which is why I think I developed this overachieving complex I have right then and there._

_For anyone out there who might think that I'm a genius, sorry to disappoint but it's just another mask. Bruce is the genius, I'm just a performer._

_A circus brat._

_I know what a good show is worth._

_And if you want to stay five steps ahead of the bad guys, practice makes perfect._

_Because hard work trumps genius any day of the week._

_And let's not forget that I'm __**not**__ Batman._

_So there I was fired... feeling lost, devastated as my place in the world was ripped away from me yet again._

_ I ran away from Wayne Manor shortly after that._

_Alfred had enough to handle taking care of Batman __and__ Wayne Manor, and Bruce seemed to make it pretty clear he didn't want a son.  
If I couldn't be Robin... what use was I to anyone?_

_I got in with the wrong crowd._

_A free meal doesn't come easy on the streets of Gotham._

_And the Boy Wonder who had once stopped crime in it's tracks even began to resort to petty theft just to survive._

_Mostly grocery stores, and it was always just food._

_So while it still didn't change the fact that what I was doing was wrong, there _**_were_**_ lines I just wasn't ready to cross._

_Though I'll remind you again that I'm a circus kid._

_A __carnie. _

_A gypsy, born and bred to live the life of a vagabond whenever the need arises._

_Doesn't matter that my parents were as respectable as the Wayne's were; even if they were as dirt poor as Gotham's favorite family was filthy rich. __I still learned a few things I probably shouldn't have from some of the circus' more **colorful** inhabitants__. You get all types in the big top after all._

_I lived like that for almost a month when one day I was approached by a man in black who saw me beat the stuffing out of some of the older runaways who had picked the **wrong** person to hustle that day. He told me he had a place for a me, a home and kindred spirits who knew the same pain I did. With promises of greatness and respect he told me I'd never to want for anything again as long as I'd agree to fight for him._

_Back then... all I wanted was a place to belong, I didn't care where it was or I what I had to do to stay there._

_Found out shortly after signing up though that I ended up joining a team of kiddie grade assassins known as the Vengeance Academy. _

_Wish I could say I was joking here but no, I really did have go to murder school just to remember why I became a hero in the first place._

_The man in black was a low profile criminal mastermind at the time, you know the type; a guy with a soft spot for troubled young boys and cut out of the same psychopathic mold I always figured Slade for. _

_The guys name was Shrike, and ironically he always said I had potential in the murder business too._

_Told me I had the eyes of someone with nothing to lose._

_Guess they were both right about me..._

_And to prove that I was a murderer at heart he even gave me a shot at getting revenge on Two Face._

_A few months of living as nameless runaway under a cheap alias brought out a side of me I never wished I had seen. But Shrike let me lead a platoon of kiddie killers straight into the madman's home and I got close enough that night to plant a slug in Two Face's ugly mug._

_Both of them._

_Only... I just couldn't do it._

_Sometimes the lines get blurred. Sometimes the only thing between __**you**__ and __**them**__ is the mask and cape. And the hope that we can be better than what we are._

_I still believed in Bruce's mission even then... I still believed in the promise he had made me that night._

_So even though I had all but betrayed him... I just __**couldn't**__ betray what he believed in._

_Years have past, and these things are nothing now but old scars. __Even now I'm not sure why I brought them up in the first place. I'm not even sure if these memories are real anymore or just things I imagined. My past seems so fuzzy these days... there's all these who's and what's... but I can't remember the why's. _

_The promises still seem so clear, I know all the words... I know I didn't forget them. But that's just it... they're just words. __Hollow and empty... just like I am now._

_Only one thing's really changed since then, now I'm __**strong**__ enough to look at things differently._

_This time isn't going to be like that last one._

_I realize my mistake now..._

_I __**should **__have the pulled trigger back then and Bruce's best friend of not, Two Face __**should**__ be dead right now._

_But as much as I'd relish the chance to choke the life out of Harvey Dent now, I'm big enough to admit that he was right that night he all but caved my head in._

_Batman __is__ weak. _

_And Lady Justice __is__ just as useless as __s__he is blind. __Which is exactly why I won't do what has to be done and claim it's in her name. _

_I don't believe in justice anymore... and I'm no martyr._

_Not__ a hero either. _

_At least not anymore..._

-Gotham City-

(Haley's Circus)

You don't have to be crazy to live in Gotham, but it helps.

And there are plenty of monsters in whom malice has come unhinged from reason; they are lost souls captured and ridden by some inner demon that inflicts itself upon the land like cancer.

Madness, however, is particular and idiosyncratic. The Joker probably being the purest example of that. This is a man that has no cause, a man that floats free of his own past. He is entirely devoid of reason in the sense both of rationality and motive.

He's the type that unleashes his brand of sadistic comedy upon the world merely because he _can_.

Insanity is strange that way... and sometimes lightning flashes in the darkest corners of the human mind.

Which was why this city needed Batman.

Batman who in a strange way was driven by the same thing these monsters were: a driving compulsion. Though whether he protected the people from these psychos or helped attract them to the very city he served Batman continued to be all that stood between this city and chaos.

Though some days... days like today... one couldn't help but think that maybe chaos was winning.

In the background of the old fairground firefighters were still desperately racing to get the raging inferno around the main tent contained. Though the residents of Haley's circus had been evacuated with little more than minor burns and injuries it still didn't change the fact that the scars these people would leave with ran deeper than just those on the black stained earth.

And scars like that have a way of twisting people.

Walking past the half a dozen swat cars that guarded a single heavy duty transport van the graying commissioner took a deep breath and prepared himself for the monster that lay within.

Pulling open the giant metal doors Jim Gordon glared at the insane clown strapped to the interior. Sunshine poured into the dismal padded walls, burning away the darkness and glistening onto the Joker's white flesh and dead black eyes. The commissioner couldn't help but be reminded of the pale glim of a shark's belly right as it emerged from the murky depths.

The type you only saw right before the water turned red.

Raising his head the clown gave his old friend a great big smile. "Top of the morning to you, Jimbo!" The Joker exclaimed despite the bruises and bleeding gums, "Pull up a seat. It's always so much more fun riding back to the squirrel farm when you have some company to pass the time with."

"Save it Joker." Jim Gordon snapped, "If it were up to me I'd have seen you sent to the gas chamber years ago. But since Doctor Thompkins has let us in on the terrorist situation that's taking place in Jump City we're willing to offer you leniency if you give us information on this Slade character."

"Hmmm, well I'm afraid there isn't much to tell." The mad clown exclaimed after a moment to reflect, "Just another looney with his mask strung on just a little _too_ tightly. Smart fellow even if he _is_ a bit obsessive. _Lousy_ dresser though. Lousy!" Thin red lips twisting to show his rows of rancid yellow teeth the clown breathed, "But if you're _really_ looking for the ringleader in our little circus I'd look no further than the shorter side of the Dynamic Duo."

Seeing the look of surprise in the old police officer's eyes Joker gasped, "Oh dearie me! Don't tell me Batman failed to mention?" Bunching his chin and lips together in serious thought Joker reasoned, "I guess I can't blame him, my father never did like to talk about _me_ much either. Still I bet the flying rodent's wondering where he went wrong with the brat. Personally I blame the hot shorts, the kid's first outfit would have driven anyone nuts!"

"That's a bad joke, Joker." Jim replied trying to keep his poker face intact as he watched the clown relish in how he was taking the news. "Even for you."

"No joke man! Who has time for jokes at a time like this?" The Joker countered, "Besides the truth is _soooo_ much more fun! Such a shame I'm not going to be able to see the rest of the show. After all Bat's little birdie's flown so far over the cuckoo's nest the only way they'll be bringing him back is in a wooden box! Though we're all in the hot seat now and old Rob's gonna make sure we fry!" Eyes squinting he looked the cop over, "I hope you have good insurance. It's going to cost a lot to pay the teams who come to scrape us all off the walls! AHAHAHAHAHA!"

Unable to take anymore out of him Gordon turned away in disgust.

"Get him out of here." The commissioner spat to a nearby officer as the clown began to practically convulse in a fit of his own laughter. Even with two inches of reinforced steel between him and the Joker the maniacal laughter continued long after the doors had slammed.

Rubbing his eyes Jim tried to blame the burning sensation in them on the ash and soot in the air.

He was tired... and without realizing it this city had grown old and worn with him.

"It's true isn't it?" He asked feeling the presence of Leslie Thompkins sneak up on him before he even had to bother raising his head. "What that monster said."

In the cold morning air the slim doctor looked as though a strong breeze was all it would take to knock her over. "It's true." She said quietly, "Though by no fault of his own... it's still true. Robin is..." Paling she couldn't finish that. "Well... let's just say Batman is in very real trouble this time. He raised the boy too well and frankly it has me terrified. I always told them that I thought that the Dynamic Duo could survive anything..." Pausing she added, "Except maybe each other. I often feared that they die one day, side by side... as knights and squires often do. But I _never_ thought I'd have to worry that it would end like this."

Reaching into his pocket the commissioner fumbled for a stick of gun and muttered, "I've been off cigarettes for two years, Doctor Thompkins. My Barbara's a real slave driver when it comes to taking care of myself. Now I can't seem to remember a time when I've wanted one this badly..." He trailed off, "You know the last time I saw the kid, oh must have been nearly three years ago, Clayface had made a unlucky fall into the Gotham River. He would have made a big splash in it too if Robin hadn't used a broken cable line as a bungee to catch him at the last second. So they're both just dangling there only a few feet away from a ice covered grave in the dead middle of winter. And the cable's weight is failing them. We're doing everything on our end to pull them up but time just didn't seem to be on our side that day. You could hear the wiring cracking under the pressure and you knew that they only had seconds before the line would cut. At that moment Clayface looks at the kid completely straight faced and asks the boy, 'Why'd you do it Birdboy? You know I'm not worth it.'" Getting a sad smile on his face the commissioner repeated Robin's reply, "'Everyone's worth it,' Was what the kid told him. He never backed away for a second, even knowing full well that saving that murderer might mean he'd end up losing his own life in the process. That's the kind of boy I always thought Robin was."

"Jim..." Leslie murmured.

"I've always believed in the those two. It's why I've allowed them to be here in the first place." Gordon stammered as he buried his brow in his hands, "This world has little place for vigilantes but I thought they could do some _good_. I wanted to hope that maybe…just maybe…the symbol they represent can stir others to stand up, take charge…and do what's right. The world isn't a pretty place, Doctor. And it's built on the foundations of humanities follies. I've seen more greed, murder, despair, and injustice in this town than any sane man should ever have to see. Humanity, despite what you might think, is a cruel beast and it's prey to war, intolerance and hatred. The world isn't nice and no amount of sugar-coating will change that. Batman's not about making the world a heaven… he's about surviving the world as the hell it is. But that doesn't mean hope isn't unobtainable. All it takes is the strength and the will of decent people to demand that hope. To be inspired by a symbol. To force us to be better than what we are. That's what always carried me through the pain that follows this city, Doctor. And frankly I just don't understand what would possess the boy to _do_ this."

"You know when all of us were a bit younger, I often wondered _why_ Batman allowed such a small boy to take on the mantle and follow him into hell all those years ago." Doctor Thompkin's said wistfully, "And I came to the conclusion one day that Batman was never trying to make another Batman when he allowed to the boy to stand by his side. For that matter he wasn't even trying to make another vigilante. I think he created Robin because he wanted to make a hero. To find a person who would live to become something brighter than he himself could ever hope to be." Squeezing Jim's shoulder Leslie breathed, "We've spent years watching him grow from a tenacious little boy into that hero, Jim. And we've believed in them both for so long... after all this time can we really lose our faith in them _now_?"

-Titan's Tower-

Even at six in the morning Titan's Tower glittered, it's glass and steel catching whatever light there was in the sleeping morning.

Forever proud and iconic.

And in exactly two minutes it would be nothing but rubble...

"So... while you were traipsing around in Robin's head, you didn't happen to get the passwords to shut down those laser cannons by any chance did you?" Beast Boy asked Jericho as he helped him off the ground.

Shaking his head in grim reply Jericho stood on weary legs as he fought with the exhaustion that came with overusing his powers. Despite his best efforts he had failed to get that far into Robin's mind. In fact it had taken every ounce of energy he had had just to get the information on Robin's real targets.

"Tell you what, I'll give you a hint if Star promises to drop another door frame on Slade." Robin offered from his spot suspended in the air. "Heck I'll even disarm the thing for you if you make sure to crush his skull in." He added pleasantly.

"Um... anyone else?" Beast Beast asked doing everything humanely possibly to avoid eye contact with their former leader.

He'd take half of Arkham's freak shows over seeing Robin with that fixed smile and those soulless blue peepers.

People's eyes were _supposed_ to reflect light, it didn't matter how evil or good you were.

But oh no, not Robin's.

Instead those blue liquid pools of pure insanity just burned into you; scalding and freezing you to the core at the exact same time.

Creepy didn't even begin to cut it.

"Perhaps we may simply dismantle the cannons, yes?" Starfire asked clenching her fist as a silent offering that she'd be happy to volunteer for the job.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Robin countered cheerfully, "Dummy switches are installed in cannon's amplifier. Try to smash your way through all that compressed chlorine gas and you'll generate an explosion with enough bang to match a small atomic blast. But hey, if you _like_ the concept of being separated from all your body parts by all means smash away. "

"Well... I guess that answers _that_ question then," Raven deadpanned before she moved back to the control panel on the cannon's side, "It's gotta be a numerical sequence." She muttered eyes narrowing in apprehension as the clock continued to count down, "And judging by the length of each configuration the password is either written in binary or maybe even Fibonacci numbers. It's clever. Not to mention _annoying_."

"Huh?" Was all Beast Boy could offer as none of the things coming out of Raven's mouth sounded like words he had ever remembered hearing.

"A Fibonacci number is an example of a divisibility sequence where each subsequent number is the sum of the previous two." Starfire explained. "And-"

"That's okay!" Beast Boy exclaimed waving his hands in the air, "You can explain it to me later considering we live through this!"

Held only an arm's length away from them and yet no longer really a part of them; Robin's cheerful demeanor changed slightly as he watched the Titans struggle with the task of disarming his system.

They were going to fail.

There was no ego or hubris involved in that statement; it was simply a cold hard fact. Even if the Teen Titans stopped the cannons they couldn't stop the missile detonation in time. Not when Rose was the one really holding the trigger.

And yet, even with victory so close at hand... he was irritated.

Slade's earlier taunt echoed in the back of his head, tearing at the unknown place in his heart he could no longer reach. It bothered him to the point that Robin was starting to wonder why he had wasted so much time creating the temporary antidote in the first place?

Whatever purpose these heroes had served, none of them were necessary now. There had never been a strategic need to keep any of them alive from the beginning.

So why...?

It was a blank.

There was no reason, no logic behind any of the things he had done to protect them. In fact he had only done it in the first place because the thought of losing them... _annoyed_ him. To have any of the Titans stop... or die... it _hurt_ to even think about it. Even if he couldn't remember why they were important, his chest ached at the thought of what would happen if they went away.

Because they weren't _allowed_ to leave.

So what if Slade was right and they _were_ just bad habits he was unable to throw away.

That still didn't change the fact that they were _his._

-Jump City-

(Slums)

Harley wanted to vomit.

It was coming up. She could taste it flowing up into the back of her throat.

The shaky violent landing that proceeded to follow didn't exactly help the feeling.

All but smashed up against the window pane like one of those cheap suction cup dolls Harley would have screamed if she had the air for it as they came to a horrible, jarring stop.

"AH YEAH! Did you see me land this puppy?" Kid Flash asked as the Batwing's door opened and he shot out into the early morning with all the excitement of a six year old on a sugar fix, "The jet was all like 'ZOOOOOM and NEEEEROOOW and the legs went like-'"

"He's doing it on purpose," Harley sobbed hanging her head once she was certain they were back on solid ground, "I'm onto him! That cowl headed freak thinks that if he forces me to hang out with this kid long enough I'll crack! That'll I'll get scared straight! Well I'll show him, you can't use reverse psychology on Harley Quinn no siree! I used to a be shrink remember?"

"You say something, Quinn?" Wally asked as he threw a glance back over his shoulder. "C'mon already! We're wasting daylight!"

"Forget it. Just contemplating how you'd look in a shallow grave," The henchwench muttered under her breath. Crawling out of the passenger side she gingerly put her weight on the side of her body that _hadn't_ been grazed with stray bullets as she limped towards the entrance.

"Hey." Wally exclaimed stopping short when he saw her small, shaky steps. "You're _hurt!_"

"A brilliant deduction there, slim." The clown girl muttered sarcastically,"Why with logic like that Bats can just up and retire!"

"Why didn't you tell me?" Kid Flash asked almost sounding like he was scolding her as made a grab for her arm.

"Why should you _care_?" Harley asked squinting her face like he was stupid before snapping her hand away, "Besides y_ou're_ the one who looks like he danced with a combine thresher."

Frowning the boy ignored her sour comment and grabbed at her hand again, "That's no excuse for this. Besides my grandma always told me I was supposed to be nice to girls. Even the criminally insane ones."

This time Harley didn't fight him as he inspected her injuries.

"Here." Wally said as he became a blur and began tearing through the Batwing's seat cushions until he located the button that revealed the first aid kit. Darting back an instant later he gently wound a fresh set of bandages onto the girl's bleeding shoulder. "Looks like Bat's doesn't keep lollys for good behavior." He said with an apologetic grin as he tied a knot in her make shift tourniquet, "But I'll kiss your boo-boo if it'll make you feel better."

Looking the boy over as he solemnly worked on patching her up Harley let out a sigh, feeling more than a little guilty for being so nasty with him earlier.

"Well it may not be perfect, but it should hold you till all this is over." Kid Flash stated once he was finished. "First Aid was never my strong suit back in Boy Scouts. I was more of a light things on fire kinda guy."

Her lips tugging into a small smile Harley stated, "You know for a kid who has more cheesy pick up lines than a Tex Avery cartoon you're pretty alright. Especially when you're not running that mouth all the time."

"Well... maybe you've just been hanging around with the wrong type of guy." Kid Flash replied. Pausing as he watched her punch in the code for the front door the boy ventured, "I mean come on Harley, don't you ever think that _maybe_ you deserve better than having some idiot in a clown suit constantly use you as his human punching bag?"

"Oh? You're going to give me advice on dating?" Harley scoffed as she eyeballed him. "You don't even look old enough to get into an R rated movie, bucko!"

"What can I say, I'm a sucker for hard luck stories." Kid Flash retorted. His tone getting serious he added, "My girlfriend used to be a in bad situation like you were once. I guess I just wanted you to know that it's never too late to change your luck."

"You're barking up the wrong tree, hero. I've heard the sermon before and I've tried the whole straight and narrow thing, it _never_ works out. Believe me this whole saving the world thing is just a one time bit." Harley countered before her voice got a little distant. "Besides... you ever think that maybe some people are just naturally born to play the stooge. I mean we can't _all_ be heroes. What would B-man do with all that free time?"

"Sure we can," Kid Flash said taking her hand and giving it a light squeeze. "It's never too late to hope for better days."

Something about that boy's honest smile made the clown girl horribly uncomfortable.

People just didn't talk to her like that much these days.

Especially since leaving the whole functioning member of society gig behind her.

Most folks barely considered her a human being let alone someone with feelings.

"But if you _insist_ on being a stooge," The boy sighed, "You can be my Curly any day." He shot back wiggling his eyebrows for good measure.

Forcing back a chuckle Harley hugged her hips, "You just don't stop do you? I betcha you must think you're pretty slick or something with all those grade school twerps swooning every time they catch a glimpse of you and those bright yellow long johns. Wells news to you, pal-"

Stopping short the insult died on her lips as they both came up upon the massive tanks and the eerie green glow of the computer that lay in the center. There was something powerful and terrifying about the giant capsules sleeping dormant at the computer's side.

And suddenly things just weren't funny anymore.

"So... you think Batman'll be able to stop Slade in time?" The girl asked in a small voice as she and Kid Flash marched up to the monitor.

"You kiddin? Big B will crunch Slade like a stale corn chip." Kid Flash replied sitting down at the monitor, "It's us I'm worried about at this point. We're the ones sitting at ground zero trying to hack into a computer that's been armed by the junior partner of the World's Greatest Detective. Batman got the easy job."

"But you can fix it right?" She murmured.

Staring at the lines of code Wally threw his shoulders back, "I dunno. The bad part part about these huge server class microprocessors is the fact they carry an insane amount of data. For all we know the system might bottleneck."

"In English professor!" Harley scoffed.

"It means... well it means I'm not 100% sure I know how to stop this thing." Flash stammered.

"Wait, I thought you said you could handle this!" The clown girl exclaimed, "'Leave the science know how to me!' you said! 'If anyone knows Robin's passwords better than the Big B it's me!' you said! Well _you_ listen to _me_ bub cuz I'm not ready to go out on someone's else running gag no siree!" Reaching into her bag the girl proceeded to pull out a mallet almost as big as she was,"So if you can't hack it, I got your tech support right _here_!"

"NO!" Wally cried wrestling the mallet out of her hand, "Where did you even _get_ that?" He gawked glancing at her purse that all but seemed to defy physics. Trying to channel his best Batman the boy picked her up and planted her on a crate before he snarled, "No mallets! No tommy guns, no smoke bombs, no whoopie cushion explosives, _no_ tech support! You just _sit_ there and let me see if I can figure this out."

Turning back to the computer Wally tried to look more confident than he felt.

Pulling passwords out from every corner he could think of he tried the name of the stuffed elephant Robin still kept under his bed.

No dice.

Alright, no sweat.

How about the first girl the Boy Wonder had ever kissed.

What was her name? Wiley something... oh yeah, Wiley Wendy! Man was she _cute_.

OK, so maybe that was more the type of password _he_ would use then Robin would but hey it was worth a shot.

No.

"Three sequences..." He muttered to himself looking at the I/OU configuration. "Meaningless on their own but together it looks like they form some kind of passage. Only problem is to _what?_ It's like the lines from a storybook or a song or something. But Robin's never been the type of guy to do something that sentimental. It's just so _Riddler_."

"Yeah, well he's never been crazy before either. What can I say we nutcases like our gimmicks." Harley replied from her seat as she stopped buffering her nails long enough to look at him. "You ready to try it my way yet?" She asked holding up the mallet.

"No, but I'm getting there..." Kid Flash grumbled.

To be continued...


	37. As My Father Made Me

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 37: As My Father Made Me

**Author's Rantings: This chapter took me almost two months to write and I'm still not 100% satisfied with it. Mostly because trying to keep the confrontation between Dick and Bruce from NOT sounding like the similar fights Batman has had with Jason Todd was a crap load harder than I originally thought it would be. Even though Jason doesn't exist in the DCAU I still wanted to make it apparent that Dick's reasons for straying onto the vigilante path are a lot different than his replacement's motives were. Regardless of whether you read the comics or not I hope I somewhat achieved that.**

_"If pain could have cured us we should long ago have been saved."_

_George Santayana_

-Gotham City-

(Arkham Asylum)

7:37 AM

In the stone walls were lunatics dwelled… countless strangers were about to share the same fate.

But there weren't just prisoners here.

Teddy the guard in the main lobby rubbed the sleep out of his weary eyes as he nursed cold coffee and the fatigue that came with spending a night burning the midnight oil.

The cleaning lady in the east wing continued to sing off key taking small pleasures where she could as she set down a new coat of wax.

And just making their morning rounds for the day were the ever present voices of reason at Arkham: Dr. Leeland and Dr. Bartholomew. The two patient souls who continued to work tireless days and thankless nights committed to finding sanity in a Gotham gone mad.

There were so many more faceless innocents inside the asylum… too many to even try to guess. Though they all had nothing in common they still shared one single bond with the criminally insane that lay just past Arkham's intimidating steel gates.

Because even though none of them knew it yet… they all only had a few minutes left to live.

-Jump City-

(The Abandoned Factory)

"HARLEY!" Kid Flash bellowed as the computer screen flickered and a strange passage flashed before his eyes. "I think I got something! Get over here! Quick! Now! Pronto!" Rocking back in forth in the chair he moaned, "Why aren't you here yet?"

"I'm injured not _deaf_, World's Fastest Doofus." The clown girl groaned as she raised herself off the crate and hobbled towards him before smacking him across the head, "So how bout we use our 'indoor voice' before you wind up back in the emergency room?"

"GEEZ! Why is _violence_ always the first place you go to?" The boy exclaimed when her fist connected with his skull. "Learn to grow from love, Harley."

"Believe me, I didn't damage anything you were actually _using_." Harley sneered before she peered down at the writing on the screen and read Robin's cryptic hint aloud:

"_I sit before the 'Mirror of Reason' asked to find the task that will make me my own master. But I'm cold and lost and can longer see what lies before me. What is it I seek?"_

Glancing at the red head from under her Harley squinted, "I can't tell if that's supposed to be a riddle or if Bird Boy's just rambling."

"Me either. But let's not look a gift horse in the mouth, Harl. At least he's still _leaving_ us a clue." KF trailed as he lost himself in thought. "Though I've got to be honest, all this has me a lot more creeped out than I ever was when I was dealing with Rob the last time. At least when he was beating the crap out of me, he still seemed like him. Just a _crazy_ him." Scratching his head he muttered, "But all this? I mean the Robin _I_ know doesn't leave people bread crumbs. It goes against everything Batman ever taught him."

"Well... he isn't really the Robin you know anymore." Harley stated matter of factly before the look on his face made her cringe. Green eyes lowered the boy looked about as down as if she had just kicked a puppy in front of him.

Clearing her throat the girl quickly tried to find a way to reword that, "Aw, I didn't mean it like that kid." She stated lightly patting his shoulder.

"No, maybe you're right." The boy responded dully. "Maybe the truth is that I never really knew him to begin with."

Whacking him once more for good measure the girl tried to hammer the gloom out of him by using so much force Wally was almost thrown out of his chair. "Oh c'mon, you don't really _believe_ that do you?" Harley asked flashing him a smile.

"Insane devotion is _your_ specialty, Quinn not mine. And unlike you I still have to live in the real world." Wally retorted sourly.

Not affected by that comment the girl shrugged, "Fine. So call me _crazy_ then." Sitting down on the desk Harley hugged her legs together before she voiced a strange new idea. "But I'm starting to think that maybe Bird Boy's doing all this cuz deep down he really _wants_ Bat's to stop him."

"What do you mean?" KF muttered as he raised a brow.

"Well think about it. Robbie knows better than anybody just how off his nut he really is right now." The blond explained, "But with Slade's little party pill damaging his Orbital Frontal Cortex the kid doesn't have a shred of self control over himself. He isn't like the rest of Bat's crazies who got carted off to the funny farm because we snapped over time; in Tweety Bird's case ol Slade pretty much just cut out the brakes on his mind." Mashing her face together for good measure she reasoned, "There's no gimmick behind that kind of crazy, no motive that drove the kid to becoming as twisted as the rest of us schmucks. Which is why the poor brat seems more like a joke that doesn't have a punchline now." Glancing at KF Harley stammered, "Take it from me, even crazy people still have _reasons_ for waking up in the morning albeit they ain't always legal ones. But in Bird Boy's case Slade took all that away. Robin doesn't have a purpose anymore, he's just hollow inside. Even his insanity is empty, _that's_ why the kid's raging at the world. Because violence is the only thing he still understands."

"So what you're saying is you think that all this is really just Robin's cry for _help_?" KF asked exasperated.

"Right-o-Rooney!" The henchwench exclaimed cheerfully. "That's the theory anyways. But you gotta remember I'm a shrink, not a brain surgeon."

Thinking about it Kid Flash had to admit she made a good point... even if she did it in a criminally insane kind of a way.

If _anyone_ could have pulled off mass genocide on the scale that Robin was planning, the Titan's leader could have done it without a hitch. But instead of executing a perfect plan that would keep him undetected until the last possible second the former Boy Wonder had instead chosen to take the hard road at every turn imaginable.

Inducing syringes into each individual Titan, leaving a blatant challenge to Batman, even crashing the tower's front door... it all seemed totally counterproductive if all the Boy Wonder really wanted was to kill people.

Maybe Robin really _did_ want to be stopped.

Mouth curling into a grim smile Kid Flash muttered, "You know you almost sounded like a doctor back there, Harley." Rapping his forehead he teased, "Even if you're still the _last_ person on earth that should be psychoanalyzing _anyone_."

"Yeah, well don't get too impressed." The clown girl scoffed, "Either way you look at it, it still don't change the fact he's gonna kill a lot of people unless you do something about those toy rockets behind ya."

Coughing into his fist Wally looked away and blurted, "Thanks, Harley."

"For what?" Harley asked blinking.

"For giving me that little bit of insanity I needed." KF answered, "Even if it's stupid... even if your theory is wrong, I think I still needed to hear it. Because deep down I really want to believe in my best friend." Rubbing the tip of his nose the freckled boy weakly tried to laugh, "No matter how nuts it seems."

"Kid... in this line of work sometimes crazy is all you get." Was the only thing she could answer.

-Titan's Tower-

Time seemed eerily slow as Robin watched the others.

In fact the timer on the cannons barely even seemed to move, the seconds almost as frozen as he was.

Staring at panel the former Boy Wonder couldn't help but start to wonder if _he'd_ make it in time.

But then Batman had never once disappointed the bad guys, in fact he almost seemed to materialize at the very mention of crime. And despite whatever the Joker had waiting for him, or how many people had gotten hurt along the way last night... deep down Dick knew Bruce would be there before the clock ran out.

There wasn't much Robin really believed in anymore… but still he somehow knew his partner wouldn't disappoint him.

After all no one could defy destiny the way Batman could.

And then all too suddenly... he was there.

The familiar silhouette of the Dark Knight appeared out of the smoke and ash like the phantom of men's nightmares. Teeth clenched, and all but coiled with rage Batman had an unfamiliar look blazed in his masked eyes as he saw the damage that had been done to Titan's Tower.

Along with the bitter reminder of the very real danger they were all still in as the electronic face on the cannon continued to count down each passing second.

But the look of betrayal on Batman's face was something Robin had been expecting. Because despite his failures in the past, this time the boy knew he had crossed a line. Bruce had finally seen the real him… and with it the cruelty Robin was really capable of.

There was no way to undo damage like that.

The Titans were all bloody and beaten to high hell as Batman stepped out onto the playing field.

Despite their obvious injuries though, the worst out of the bunch was still the Dark Knight's former partner.

Fifteen layers of nomex interwoven through the metal plating of Slade's apprentice uniform hadn't been enough to protect the kid from most of the fire damage he had sustained. And it was more than obvious that if Robin hadn't been locked in Raven's powers the youth would have had a hard time even standing at this point.

The wounds and gashes on Robin had been placed almost strategically, making it obvious that his opponent was much wiser and far more seasoned than anyone the Boy Wonder's own age.

Injuries like those weren't something the Titans were capable of.

Rather it was all too clear that Slade had made sure that each piece of seared flesh and tattered cut the child had sustained had been delivered with the utmost cruelty.

So while Batman had never prepared himself for the day he might have had to face his former partner as an enemy, he had always dreaded the thought that Robin's confidence might mean he'd one day lose the boy. There were times Bruce often doubted he would never see Dick Grayson live to become a man… or even get the chance to grow up.

Because despite all the training, all the brilliance, all the strength, under all that Robin was only human.

And it was clear now that Bruce had never properly taught the child how to fear death.

The Teen Wonder was as pale as a sheet, dirt and blood caking his tattered clothing as he straightened himself to meet Batman's gaze full on. But his injuries did nothing to curb the warm grin he flashed his mentor as Batman treaded soundlessly towards him.

"Hi Boss, hard day at the office?" The boy asked casually as the Dark Knight approached the Titans. "Joker must have really thrown one heck of a party this time-"

"End this. _Now._" Was all he got in reply as Batman cut him off bearing down on the boy with clenched teeth and slanted eyes.

"Holy lame intimidation tactics, Batman." Robin replied rolling his eyes, "Save it for the two bit thugs back home." Lips thinning into cruel smile the youth added, "After all it's not like you'll _kill_ me if I say no."

"Slade and the Joker are finished." The Dark Knight declared, "So hand over the encryption string."

"_You're_ the World's Greatest Detective." Dick said with a light challenge, "Can't you figure it out?"

Towering over him until he was so close that they were almost eye to eye, the Caped Crusader spoke with the same cold and distant tone he always used. "Dick... I don't pretend to know what the Slade and the Joker have done to you… but madness isn't an excuse for this."

But then the voice wavered ever so slightly.

The white lenses from behind Batman's cowl ached with something Robin could no longer understand as his mentor stated, "You're throwing away everything you've lived for aside like it was nothing. Following through with this plan doesn't make you as bad as the scum we hunt, it makes you _worse_. Because they never stood for anything. I'm giving you the chance to stop this now before it's too late."

"You're a walking fortune cookie, Batman. And a stale one at that." Robin countered before he let out a sigh, "For the first time in my life I finally see thing's for how they really are. And I'm not killing innocent lives here, I'm killing _scum_. Evil, sadistic bastards that have spent years monopolizing a system that doesn't work." Eyes narrowing the boy flashed a nihilistic smile as he spat, "No one is going to care if I blow Arkham and Belle Reve off the map. Heck when all this is over, most people will probably _thank_ me. Some might even consider me a better hero than you ever were."

"Murder doesn't equal justice, Robin." Batman countered, "Just because we work outside the law doesn't mean we're above it. I thought you understood that."

"Yeah, yeah... there you go again being a self-righteous hypocrite." Robin sneered, "For years now you've talked about the sanctity of human life. But it's hard to swallow that same tired story when we're practically _choking_ under the piles of human victims we couldn't save. After all this time Batman, you'd almost think that delusional morality of yours would be _funny. _But even as crazy as I am, even though the world looks like nothing more than a sick joke to me now... I still can't find the stomach to laugh at you. You're just pathetic, old man. And I've outgrown you and your mission."

His tone didn't change but a madness whirled in the youth's eyes as he sized Batman up.

The resentment Robin felt couldn't be dispelled by a few half hearted words but he asked anyways, "Does protecting those boogeymen really make us better people, Batman? No, I'm starting to think that the real reason you do it is because it's more important for your ego to know that you kept the monsters in Arkham alive. By hiding behind justice, by _not_ crossing that line, it's all just a way to make you feel better when we fail people." Letting out a bitter laugh the boy snarled, "But I'm not like you, Batman. By staying in the lines, following that strict moral code, always making sure to follow _your_ rules... it just isn't enough for me anymore. Because I've realized that even though we never pulled the triggers, there's still so much blood on our hands. And why? Why do so many people have to die for sake of that line? You've been called the most dangerous man on earth and madness _still_ claims your city."

Getting a glazed, almost deluded look on his face Robin sighed, "That's the real problem though. _That's_ why we fail."

In a single word he spelled it out for the hero, "Madness."

"Because the crazies have _never_ been afraid of you. Over the years, you've become something more than human... you practically _haunt_ that city. And most people are smart enough to be scared of you. But there's still one fatal flaw in that blanket of intimidation of yours."

Staring at Batman point blank the boy concluded, "The monsters of this world will never take you seriously as long as they know you won't _kill_ them."

With downcast eyes and a expression that almost seemed haggard Robin looked sad and empty despite the smile still on his face, "Despite all that darkness inside you, Batman... you still have such a nauseating amount of respect for human life. Which is why you can't understand that the _only_ way to stop all this madness is to join it. That's why _I'll_ do it for you."

Closing his eyes in a half-lidded grin the boy explained, "I don't expect you to understand. I don't really understand myself anymore either. But regardless you're too late to stop me. I'll protect you guys... even if it means becoming something you hate."

"You're _wrong_, Robin!" A smaller voice cried out. Clenching his fists, angry tears were burning in Jericho's eyes as he spat, "Destroying something in hopes you can protect something else _never_ works! If you start to think like that than you really _will_ become just like Slade!" Panting the smaller boy fought with his own body to curb the fury radiating through it, "That man spent a lifetime learning to prey upon the senseless vendettas built on human greed. And he lost everything he ever loved, all because he thought destroying other people's happiness was alright as long as he was_ protecting_ his own." With a small pleading voice Joey quivered, "It's true that you and Slade really are a lot alike... but please... after everything that's happened... Robin don't prove him _right._"

It was true that being a monster meant one thing but somehow the weight of Joey's words struck a cord in Robin's core.

Glancing at the timer on the clock, the panel was dwindling away the seconds like they were nothing now.

They had less than a minutes left...

"I never wanted to admit how much me and Slade really are alike. No matter how hard I tried to be like you, Batman... I always fell short." The insane boy almost laughed, "You can somehow always do the impossible. There was a time that I used to cling to the belief that I could do it too if I only _tried_ harder. All my life I've been trying to prove that you made the right choice when you offered me this job. I wanted to show you that I wouldn't break under the pressure... that I could still become everything you wanted me to be. But I failed you... I can't be like you."

Completely lost and with eyes that seemed all but dead Robin rambled, "When I was little you told me that the reason we don't take lives is because our identity means more to us than our morality. You said that as long as we can choose that, then we get choose who we are in the world... and that way no matter what other people say about us _we_ still get to choose to call ourselves sane."

Blue eyes burning Dick turned his gaze up to Bruce and asked, "If I'm not sane... does that mean my identity disappears too? So if I'm not Robin... then _what_ am I... Batman?"

"I don't have an easy answer, Robin. It's never that simple." Batman answered frankly, "But men are what they are... and everyone has to take responsibility for their own actions." Glancing at Slade's unconscious form the Dark Knight muttered, "You may be right though. The world probably _would_ be a better place without people like Slade and the Joker. But no matter the reason for your actions you'd still go down for this crime."

"Give me the encryption code, Dick." Batman ordered as he outstretched a black gloved hand towards his partner, "I don't care how many lives these lunatics have ruined, I won't let them ruin yours."

"My how my ears are _burning_." Slade's voice purred before the area went white as a well placed flash disk tore into the open plain.

Temporarily blinded the Titans and Batman shielded their eyes as the battle torn form of Deathstroke the Terminator materialized in the distance.

The assassin carried himself with all the ferocity of an animal backed into a corner as he bent down to retrieve the gun he had lost during Starfire's assault.

Bleeding out of almost every orifice he had, it had been a while since Slade could remember the last time he had been beaten to this extent.

Which was exactly why his good nature had been worn painfully thin.

Glancing at the timer on the cannons yards away his inhuman eyesight immediately caught the mere moments that remained before the detonation.

Though Slade didn't really have to wait for the missile at this point… since even now he could imagine just how much of his computerized plague was ravaging through his body. Even if it was dormant the disease was still there, circulating, coursing through his arteries.

Like a whisper, a voice rising from the dark.

"Better men than _you_ have tried their hand at playing god, young man." Slade grinned, "Though I have to admit few people have gotten this close to actually _killing_ me." Slade grinned.

And just like that the last sliver of Robin's humanity all but drained out of the soles of his shoes.

It was that smile.

Something about the smile Slade was wearing reminded him of the same one Tony Zucco had on his face the night he had murdered his parents.

And somehow seeing it on his greatest enemy made Robin's mind snap even more.

Anger rising up in a dark boil that bubbled up through his insides there was little the half-demon holding him could do other than stagger backwards as Robin used the chaos from Slade's blast to slam his fist into Raven's shoulder.

Lashing out half blindly with her powers she quickly struggled to recapture him before the force behind his blow connected her with the hard metal casing of the timer panel. Raven's face cracked against the machinery and echoed like a gunshot as her vision crossed. A sharp stinging pain radiated through her forehead as warm, wet blood oozed out of the newly formed wound.

Even as the demon girl struggled to see past the red trickling down her face she knew she had already lost him.

Titan's Tower had mere _seconds_ left before the detonation and Robin still seemed hellbent on spending his last dying breath attacking Slade.

But this time the boy had finally found his answer.

"Batman!" Dick shouted turning back for a moment and looking his mentor dead in eyes. "The main detonator for the missiles is attached to a timer that's operated by a trigger. If you blow the trigger, you'll stop the explosion. With or _without_ an encryption string. So if you want to stop this... find the person holding the switch."

"You heard him, Dark Knight." Slade taunted as set his sight on his last target. "Though even with that hint time doesn't seem to be on _either_ of our sides."

Slade wasn't aiming for the Titans or Batman as his gun fired its final shot.

Being a military man himself Slade Wilson was no stranger to the concept of Lexicorp's use of chemical oxygen iodine lasers. COIL technology is designed for the sole purpose of effectively heating objects until a target tears itself apart from cellular stress. On it's own all the chemicals inside the device weren't particularly flammable. But when they mixed together to power the laser H2O2 generated a chemical reaction between chlorine gas and an aqueous mixture of hydrogen peroxide and potassium hydroxide. Ultimately the process tended to leave the filtration tanks on the cannons filled to brim with potassium chloride.

And that's _really_ flammable. In fact potassium chloride is usually the chemical that puts the 'bang' in plastic explosives.

The tanks cracked and hummed for a few brief seconds as the shot impacted. Gas sizzled escaping from the metal casing with a ripping force before the area was blanketed by a wall of fire.

Suddenly the earth roared and every window in the Tower shattered as the oxygen was ripped out of the air by the sheer pressure of the blast.

Insane waves of heat pummeled the heroes into the ground as if they were no more than insects as their island hissed and screamed in agony against the bursts of flame.

And then all too quietly a shadow fell over the group.

Despite all it's effort Titan's Tower had finally given up it's fight.

It could stand no longer.

There wasn't time for coherent thought or even the chance to scream as the stone and glass of the massive structure plummeted to the ground, swallowing the heroes in a sweltering inferno.

Across the ocean the panicked onlookers of Jump City could only look on in terror as the beacon that had brought them hope for so many years disappeared in a pillar of fire and crashing ocean spray.

... ... ...

To be concluded...


	38. Choices

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 38: Choices

**Author's Ramblings: Part 1 of 3 for the finale is up. I was going to post the whole thing in one shot when I realized that most people don't want to read a 12,000 word chapter in one sitting. With that said, I'll post the other two segments shortly. Thanks again to all you readers who have supported this story. **

"_He who has a why to live can bear almost any how." _

_Friedrich Nietzsche _

-Titan's Tower-

(Sub Level 3: Emergency Staircase)

The escape tunnels were one of the most structurally sound parts of Titan's Tower for a reason. But even reinforced walls are only as strong as their support frames. Rose and Cyborg had no more made it to the exit when the world all but seemed to implode in on itself. Grabbing the small child and clutching her as if she were a football the robotic teenager made a dead sprint back into the safety of the tunnel before the force of the explosion overpowered him.

Raging heat blasted him forward and rolled the two like marbles caught in a iron shoot. Around them cement and chunks of the foundation were ripped out of the island's core as it seemed to all but swallow them up. Blindly reaching out as the roof continued to topple on top of their heads Cyborg caught a nearby door frame and pulled his body and his small cargo into the nearby emergency staircase. Kneeling in the corner he covered Rose using himself as a barricade against the onslaught of debris.

"STAY DOWN!" He barked to the girl as the explosions continued to bring down the house.

"Mister Cyborg..." Rose could only stammer in weak reply as she watched helplessly as the older boy suffered injury after injury in order to protect her.

All around them the walls collapsed in on them, the roar of the earth drowning out even their own screams. Yet at a time like this Rose found she was strangely reminded of her storybooks.

And of her Joey.

Rose had always wanted a different future. If she had just been strong enough to walk away and put hope out of her thoughts, maybe things wouldn't have ended this way.

But the reality was she didn't want to say goodbye. Not when they had never really even said hello yet.

There were still so many things she wanted to tell him.

"_I really wanted to meet you one more time, Big Brother..."_ Rose thought as she clung onto Cyborg, the stone and steel pummeling them blindly as they were forced further into the corner. A lucky boulder hit one of the circuit panels, and with sparks flying the emergency lights instantly shattered leaving the two in complete darkness.

As more and more of the roof continued to fall.

"_We were always trying to reach each other, weren't we Joey?"_ The white haired girl bitterly asked herself, _"But somehow... fate always found a way to pull us apart."_

The darkness threatened to swallow them up as one other person entered the girl's last thoughts.

A boy with the wild blue eyes who smiled like a madman so the world wouldn't notice how lost he really was.

In the end, she never got to finish the story. Rose never did get to see if Kay was able to answer the Snow Queen's riddle and get his heart back.

The girl had little time to dwell on it, as she was suddenly blindsided by Cyborg's cry of alarm before white hot pain shattered across the left half of her face.

Directly above them a grade beam snapped off the ceiling fixtures, before gravity hurtled it towards them. Running on pure instinct and adrenaline Cyborg had no way to dodge or avoid it; so he used his hand as a guard catching the brunt of the force as it tore into his circuits. Sacrificing his own hand may have been a hasty decision but it was a gesture that probably saved the kid's life.

Otherwise the huge piece of metal would now be penetrating the small girl's skull.

But all that effort still wasn't enough to stop the serrated end of the broken beam from slicing into Rose's left eye.

Cyborg could only open his mouth in silent horror as the jagged steel that cut through his own hand tore past the child's eye socket, instantly painting the wall and each other red in a stream of blood.

Before it was followed by an all too sickening pop, and the light was stolen forever from the child's left side.

Disregarding the pain as it tore though his mix of machinery and flesh, Cyborg had to fight with the beam's weight as it continued to try to push him closer to Rose. His own hand was already a mangled, bloody pulp by now but Cyborg reminded himself that his body could always be rebuilt.

The little girl's on the other hand would be a lot harder to fix.

The fact that they were stuck where they stood didn't make things any easier. If Cyborg tried to free himself from this spot there was no guarantee that something bigger wouldn't just fall down to replace it.

All they could do for now was weather the storm and pray no one else would lose any more body parts by the time it was all over.

... ... ... ...

It seemed like an eternity has passed before the ground above them finally stopped shaking.

Half buried in rubble and chunks of cement, Cyborg's own body was now suffering several minor malfunctions from the scattered injuries throughout his system. But on the plus side at least they were still alive.

Using mostly willpower to move his damaged joints Cyborg lifted the small girl up to inspect her for any other injuries now that the air had settled. "You still with me kid?" He asked in a voice that sounded much braver than he felt.

She didn't answer him.

Glancing down at the girl ground bits of stone painted the child's snow white hair, covering her nose and cheeks like chalk stain.

But all that white was mixed was specks of blood.

And the girl's remaining green eye was filled to the brim with tears the child seemed unable to shed.

"Rose?" Cyborg asked again, this time a little more forcefully as her silence caused his heart to drop into his stomach.

The kid had lost so much blood and yet she hadn't made a peep since it had happened.

In fact she hadn't even screamed.

Shaking her shoulders Cyborg finally managed to get a response from her.

"... two... for flinching..." Rose whispered in a cracked voice, her body limp as if she were nothing more than a doll.

It was obvious at this point the little girl was in a state of shock.

Staring at her and the blood gushing out of her left eye socket Cyborg didn't need a medical degree to know there was no way they were going to be able to save it.

"I'm so sorry, kid." Was all the robotic teen could offer knowing first hand the pain of what it felt like to lose a part of yourself. Pulling her into his arms Cyborg cradled her head and held her. "I won't tell you can't cry over what you lost." The older boy stated, "When this is over you can even scream until you're blue in the face."

For girl who had spent a lifetime using detachment as a defense mechanism from mental and physical abuse the teenager's kindness was exactly the opposite of what she had been expecting. Her mechanical stare softening as he continued to tenderly embrace her Rose quivered and shed the last tears she'd ever allow herself to cry.

Cupping her chin with his hand Cyborg forced her to look at him, "I know it's hard, believe me I _know_. But right now, Rose. Right now I need you to stay with me okay?"

What happened next was something Cyborg wished with all the world he could change.

But even heroes can't always believe in happy endings.

So he had to watch as the little girl killed the remaining weakness in her heart. Replacing her innocence with a dead expression that no one that young should ever have to wear Rose Wilson joined the ranks of all those who were forced to grow up in order to survive the harshness of this world.

And it was clear from her simple expression that the person trapped in that small body would never be a child again.

"Thank you," The white haired girl stated after a moment of silence, reaching over to clasp his shattered hand in hers, "For saving me."

"I..." Biting back shame and guilt as her blood soaked face got too close for comfort the cybernetic youth choked, "Don't say things you don't mean, kid. I still wasn't able to stop this from happening-"

"You saved _most_ of me, Mister Cyborg." Rose interrupted viciously, "I'm still here because of you. Besides, I've hurt like this for as long as I can remember. Only before it was always on the inside." Reaching out to touch the blood pouring down her cheek she murmured, "Now that it's on the outside, it doesn't seem all that different. Maybe that's because pain's been the only thing that's ever really stayed with me."

"Y'know my coach always used to say that 'pain is inevitable but suffering is optional.'" Cyborg offered with a weak smile as he was forced out of his pity party, "Sadly I never really understood those words until _after_ my accident changed things. But since then I've learned to take those feelings and do something better with them. So don't let pain beat you, Rose."

Activating the flood lights on his forearm Cyborg used his good hand to yank the child forward as he found new strength, "C'mon, we should be close to the docking bay elevator. Now that the quakes have stopped I'm getting us out of here."

It was quiet after that, neither one knowing what to say to the other as they fought their way towards the exit.

Then without warning Rose turned to him and suddenly blurted out of the blue, "Robin was right about you, Mister Cyborg."

"Right about what?" The Teen Titan asked as he continued to blast out a path for them.

"You have an indomitable spirit. And that's what makes you more human than anyone." She replied. "Even though you're acting tough for my sake... even a kid like me can see how badly your circuits are damaged. I doubt you can barely move right now, but you still have so much fight in you. You're just like Robin said you were."

Pausing at his friend's words a strange mix of happiness and pain swelled in Cyborg's chest. "He... he really said that about me?" The older boy asked in a hushed voice.

Rose nodded, "I didn't believe him at first, but I see that spirit too now. You don't hide behind heroics as a way to justify what happened to you, Mister Cyborg. You actually believe in this ugly world, just like Joey does. And even though you're a fool... even though you're stupid for being that weak... I-I just can't hate you for feeling that way." Pink lips pursing she muttered, "And I don't want to play games with you anymore."

Coming to a stop the young girl reached into her pocket and pulled out the last thing on earth Cyborg had been expecting to see.

The missile detonator.

Holding it up as though she were showing off the prize from a cereal box Rose placed it in his hands.

"Tell me that's not-" Cyborg stammered at a complete loss.

This whole time the Titans had been fighting with everything they had... and the control to the device that was threatening thousands of lives had just been dropped into his hands as casually as if it were one of BB's stankballs.

"I was waiting for one of you guys to catch on but you never did, Mister Cyborg. It was a really lonely game of keep away, and all this time you heroes were chasing the wrong bad guy. And not you, nor that alien girl, or even my brother ever suspected me for a minute." Rose said matter of factly, "The fate of all those people was never up to Robin... he decided at the last minute that'd he'd leave it up to me. He said I could write my own ending to this story." With a smile that was too childish for the mind behind that little body she added, "Which is why I'm giving it you now. After all, everyone knows that in the best stories the heroes always manage to save the day at the last minute."

Cyborg should have been elated, in fact he should have been overjoyed at this simple act.

And he would have been... if the ground above them hadn't decided then and there to start falling again.

(Meanwhile...)

-Titan's Tower-

(T-Ship Docking Bay)

They say that hell is a funneled cavern that extends all the way to the center of the earth.

That world is horrible.

Ugly.

Angry.

And hell was exactly where Slade found himself again. Although this time he was witnessing the fiery inferno while he still had a pulse. For Titan's Tower now bore a strange resemblance to the place he had clawed his way out of only a year ago.

Not that this really changed his present situation much.

After all if he had managed to crawl out of the pit once, he could do it again.

Staring up at blocked off exit that was several stories above him it was a small miracle that Deathstroke the Terminator hadn't been crushed by the debris on the way down. But the very thing that saved him and the Titans from a quick death by thousands of tons of steel and concrete, might now prove to be their downfall. For more than 50% of the building's structure was actually made up of it's multilevel-level modified caverns. Meaning that just as much of the tower lay under the surface. So while the dilapidated remains of the giant T blocked away most of the remaining light, there was still enough cracks to see the blinding heat that still roared over their heads.

Slade couldn't help but chuckle to himself as he realized this was quite a spot to find yourself when you've reached the end of your rope.

Above them a typhoon of raging flames, below them the black empty ocean floor.

Either direction you played it the odds weren't in anyone's favor.

And it was then out of the corner of his eye that Slade saw a small mound of earth begin to shift.

Tearing out of the dirt the bloody, burn covered hands of his former apprentice pulled themselves out of their makeshift grave. Coughing and hacking as sweet air rushed back into his lungs the half dead boy clung to life with everything he had as he mustered up the strength to pull something out of the ground with him.

Good eye widening in surprise Slade was honestly at a lost when he saw the unconscious form of his son yanked out of the rubble. Despite Robin's almost rabid insanity and the intense hatred he had for Deathstroke, at the last minute when the trigger had been pulled and a choice had to be made... the boy had still chosen to protect his friend rather than save himself.

He had proven to Slade that the Titans meant more to him than even his revenge.

But the youth's energy didn't last long. Once he was certain that Joey was out of the dirt the Titan's former leader all but crumpled onto the steel grating, finally succumbing to the exhaustion that had been so overdue.

Staring at the battered, broken figure of his small weak son Slade unconsciously took a step forward to reach out to him. But as always he pulled away at the last second, deadening his heart to the boy he had no right to call his own. Instead Slade turned his attention the teen's savior instead, finding small pleasures in torturing Robin's last moments.

"Oh Robin, tsk tsk." Slade couldn't help but chuckle as he sauntered up to the young man, "You're living proof that a father's shadow is often larger than we'd like. Despite all that talk... here you are, almost as dead as your useless ideals."

The Titan's leader struggled to pick his head up off the metal framing, but his stamina had been ground down to almost nothing. So he relied on the only part of his body that was still working.

His mouth.

"My friends were in trouble, Slade. Even a lunatic knows you can't protect someone if they're dead." Robin spat.

"How heroic of you." Slade scoffed as he watched the youth's life force burn out more with each passing second, "But that's the real trouble with you, Robin. Try as I might I just can't seem to rip out that weakness." Saluting the boy as the newly dead the masked assassin sighed, "Well here's to lost causes, kid."

Gloved hands drug Robin a few feet away from rubble before a familiar boot was slammed up against Robin's shoulder blades to prevent him from going anywhere.

"Have I ever heard told you this story, Grayson?" Deathstroke muttered as he decided they'd wait out the boy's last few minutes of life together, "The one about the eager cadet who agreed to test a government controlled antidote made to combat truth serums."

"Already a promising solider the fool volunteered in hopes that the experiment would help forward his military career. But in the end both parties wound up getting more than they bargained for." Glancing at the kid to make sure he was still with him Slade stated, "You see the funny thing about the project's serum was that the doctors never counted on the _side-effects. _No sooner had the needle pierced his skin before the cadet began to display an almost uncanny amount of strength. Even the steel restraining straps weren't enough to hold him as the medicine tore through veins and seeped into his adrenal glands. At first this pain all but drove the young man insane. But that insanity eventually gave way to something else... until thought and action suddenly started to become one. And lo and behold the cadet's instincts heightened until they were almost instantaneous. You see most humans only operate using a fraction of their mind, but the young man soon realized his brain began to perform at nearly 90% its capacity. As you can imagine the event somewhat shattered the cadet mentally so he went AWOL shortly afterwards. For years he traveled endlessly, never stopping for more than a few days, afraid one misstep and he'd wind up in some test tube as a government experiment. But by the end of the third year, the cadet arrived at a disputatious mountain area in the South Pacific. The small village he had found himself in was a vortex of refugees, lined with rubble and the corpses of soldiers fighting a meaningless civil war. Out of all the places on earth that blood stained hole was the only place that had ever welcomed him. Because that town didn't discriminate between friend and foe. So the man learned that war is often the perfect mask to hide oneself in. And it was there among all the slaughter that he finally found a place for himself. It was only in violence that he ever truly felt at home."

"Gee, can I take a wild guess on who that cadet was?" Robin replied unmoved by the story.

Chuckling Slade glanced down at the boy and breathed, "In the end, that's our true nature Robin. Everyone in this wretched world is born only to fight. People have said that it was logic that drove me mad, but we both know better don't we? Because sometimes it's madness that makes us what we really are."

"You had another kind of home once upon a time, Slade." The boy below him replied as his eyes fell on the unconscious form of Jericho, "Only problem is that the violence you seem to love so much is what destroyed it in the first place."

Taking the information for what it was Dick finally saw the full picture, "I get it now. This was all about more than just roping me into being your apprentice again. In fact it's never been about me at all has it, Slade? You've just been trying to prove to yourself that your own war stained existence means more to the world than the massacres you've left behind." Disgusted he spat, "It's the same kind of sad, pathetic showmanship that the Joker uses. Trying to show the world that _one_ bad day is the only thing standing between sanity and chaos. So when you heard that the government was funding another brain inhibitor similar to the one that made you a meta-human in the first place, you decided you were going to recreate the experiment on me_._" Hate burning through his half dead eyes Robin snarled, "All so you could prove there was someone else out there as twisted as you."

"You should feel honored, young man. I couldn't think of anyone more deserving than you to test it out on." Slade answered.

"We're alike." Robin seethed, "But that doesn't make us the same, Slade." Wiping the blood and dirt off his lip the boy decided to indulge in the quid pro quo. "You know a long time ago before I put on this mask, I was never afraid of anything. But every year since then all I could ask myself was how much value is there really in being human? Now I wonder if was I really that tired of it to begin with. Was I really so scared of my own humanity that just threw it away?" Knotting his hands in his dark bangs the boy whispered, "Did... did I really hate Dick Grayson _that_ much?"

"I can't remember... I can't remember _why_ I buried myself under this mask, Slade." The boy said with a laugh that sounded more like a croak, "I can't even remember what it feels like to be a person anymore. But even if I'm like this, I still had friends that were willing to try to save me. Despite these unforgivable thoughts of mine, despite the monster I've become they still protected me even though they hurt themselves while doing it. After _everything_ I did they were still trying to reach me." Laughing bitterly Robin sighed, "For years now Slade, I've started to lose faith in this world... but somehow... even when I'm completely crazy... I never could stop believing in _them_."

Lowering his head Robin was silent for a few seconds, his body so rigid that Slade wasn't even sure if the youth was still alive.

"Very touching last words, Boy Wonder." The assassin said coldly turning away from his opponent for the last time. "I'll mention them at your eulogy."

"Oh? Who said they were my last words?" Came the boy's defiant response.

Robin was a martial artist first, and used to things hurting in the short term and paying off in the long.

So somehow despite natural law and the agonizing screams of his own body he managed to rise to his feet.

But his stance was slightly different from the cool headed and frozen creature he had been until then.

Now a dark passion burned in his eyes, lighting its way past his insanity.

"That's impossible! You shouldn't even be able to move right now." Slade snarled as the boy practically rose from the dead.

"Not really. Batman does the impossible." Robin stated as his mouth slipped into it's trademark cocky grin. "I'm just doing what he taught me to: I'm not giving up."

"Oh Robin." The assassin warned, "You're really going to regret getting back up." Good eye narrowing he asked, "Besides do you really think you can beat me in your condition, alone?"

"That's the difference between you and me, Slade. I'm not alone. I've _never_ been alone." The Boy Wonder answered, "I forgot that for a while. But now for the first time since I've gone nuts, I actually think I have my head on straight."

(End Part 1/3 of the Finale...)


	39. The Writing on the Wall

The Value of Heroes

Chapter 39: The Writing on the Wall

**Author's Ramblings: Part 2 of 3 of the Finale.**

_"Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them."_

_Bruce Lee_

-Titan's Tower-

(T-Ship Docking Bay)

"You're a tough little bastard, Robin. Even I have to give you that." The vigilante stated as he watched the half-dead boy's feet slip into a Wing Chun horse stance. A much more acrobatic form than the boy's usual martial art moves, it looked like Robin was planning on relying almost completely on his agility for this fight.

Not that Slade could blame the kid. In his condition a single blow could cause massive organ failure or internal bleeding. Which meant just one slip up and Batman's little birdy was going to be six feet under.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Grayson?" The masked assassin couldn't help but taunt, "Because this time I don't think anyone's coming to save you."

"Go to hell." The boy coldly replied.

"I've been, remember. And frankly it's overrated." Slade countered pleasantly.

Still the mercenary couldn't help but admire the boy's sheer will to live.

Which was exactly why the kid gloves were finally coming off.

So instead of pulling out his trademark staff from the sheath behind his back, Slade now revealed a thin glistening blade.

Keeping true to his earlier story about his days in South East Asia, the assassin wielded a round cross-section dha. Found mostly in Cambodia "dha" swords were a particularly nasty breed of weapon that allowed their users to favor single hand techniques and deliver devastating slashes.

It was the first time Robin had ever laid eyes on the former assassin's old weapon of choice... and if things didn't go his way it would probably end up being his last as well.

Unarmed in a fight against a sword that could practically cut through steel, the odds just seemed to keep getting better and better for Robin.

And despite all that bravado... Dick already knew he had one foot in the grave.

His sternum was cracked.

Several ribs were too.

Losing two pints of blood didn't help his situation much either.

Even at his physical best the Boy Wonder had never been able to fight Slade at an equal level. So he had to stop fighting like a hero and start fighting smart.

Which meant fight dirty.

Without another sound Robin sprinted forward, bearing down on the masked criminal like a missile.

Because despite Slade's friendly tone the man was on borrowed time and he knew it. If the missiles went live Deathstroke would only have seconds to react before his own weapon would render him brain dead or buried. Being faced with those two choices was enough to get _anyone_ hot under the collar.

And when people are backed into corners they make mistakes.

So instead of the normal calculating strikes Robin had grown accustomed to whenever he crossed blows with his archenemy, now the sword swinging in Slade's hand was moving in almost completely straight lines.

Which was something Robin could use against him.

Purposely charging directly into Slade's kill zone the boy waited for the blade to come slicing towards his head before he bent backwards at the last second, dodging the mercenary's sword by only fractions of a centimeter.

The metal grating sound stinging in his ear, Robin could feel the wind kick up as the edge of Slade's weapon sliced the tip of his nose. But the move put the boy close enough to his opponent to allow him to pull out an old school favorite of his own.

Nichrome flash tablets.

Vaulting upwards the Boy Wonder ignited a capsule inches from the assassin's face. Only to just as quickly tuck under the older man's legs, somersaulting out the way before the scalding light could shatter the area.

Because any good crime fighter or pyromaniac knew that getting caught in a nichrome blast can create up to three minutes of blindness. With an added bonus of having the epithelial layer on your cornea feel like it had been scrubbed with sandpaper.

Not even a seasoned warrior like Slade could keep his scream in check as his one good eye was rendered temporarily useless.

Kicking off the ground, the Boy Wonder wasted no time to take advantage of his opponent's handicap. He'd have to finish this fight before the mercenary ever had a chance to regain his composure.

"So would you rather have a concussion or a loose filling?" Robin snapped as he pushed off into a slanted aerial cartwheel, using the momentum to land a butterfly kick into the side of Slade's skull. "Aw heck, I'm a nice guy. Here, take both!"

But behind the sarcastic remarks, Robin's body was screaming out against his own actions. Normally a kick like that would have at least been able to take down a grown man. Now he doubted it would even be enough to slow Slade down for more than a few seconds.

His injuries were past hurting at this point, and Dick's feet had no more than touched back down before his insides felt as if they were about to spill out onto the floor.

Sinking to his knees Robin's breathing came out in short ragged gasps, as his shattered ribs made it impossible for the boy to even take in a full rush of air without the pain making him want to vomit.

Originally the timer to the laser cannons and the count down sequence to the missiles had only been placed about 10 minutes apart from each other. Insurance to make sure there was no way Slade would be able to escape the drop radius before the virus went live; and at the same time see to it that the Titan's had a shot at getting off the island.

Which meant right now Robin didn't have the time to waste on either Slade or his own injuries.

"_Have to focus, just need to keep it together for a little longer..." _The black haired boy snarled to himself as he all but collapsed again.

Weaving a little Dick forced himself back up.

He had to keep going... even if it killed him.

-Titan's Tower-

(Detonation)

In the first earth shattering seconds of the explosion Raven's powers had been the only thing stopping the onslaught of rocks from crushing Batman and the other Titans as they fell. She had avoided each murderous death trap with a skill and iron control that the Dark Knight seldom associated with magic users.

The things a person had to give up in order to achieve that type of mental strength was something no one her age should have to put themselves through.

Because Batman knew all too well that you didn't just deny yourself a childhood when you did that... you denied yourself humanity too.

For a few seconds though it almost looked like they were going to make it.

Until the bay dock doors began to fall in on themselves.

The lateral support for the massive structures had all but been ripped off their hinges as it continued to be pummeled by the rocks above. And as the huge, titanic structures finally caved Raven knew there was no way her telekinesis could hold onto something that heavy for more than a few seconds.

But she didn't have to.

Breaking out of the demon's protective shield, Batman wordlessly plummeted towards the iron slabs that dwarfed him by comparison. Before an arsenal of pellet grenades and concussion bombs decimated the massive structures.

Proving once again that you didn't need superpowers as long as you were a one man armory.

Shooting through a small hole in the wreckage, those doors were the last great hazard standing in the Titan's way. Now there wasn't anything else left to fall through except the black, murky waves below.

Firing a zip line up into the storm of boulders all Batman could do was make sure he hit the wall before he could hit the water.

Bruce didn't like this.

He didn't like being pushed into a corner.

And he _really_ didn't like being caught off guard.

That was why the Dark Knight used his mind to make himself appear more than a man.

So he'd never have to rely on chance.

Or find himself at the mercy of a miracle... like he was now.

(Minutes later...)

The good news was the rocks had finally stopped falling.

But the bad news was that the Titans now found themselves suspended over a thirty foot ocean drop, with a newly formed ceiling of dirt and concrete blocking the entrance they had just come from.

"Friends, are you unharmed?" Starfire asked as she scanned the area for any signs of solid ground once it was safe enough for her to move.

"We're alive, Starfire." Raven replied as she removed her physic barrier. Hiding her face in the shadow of her cloak she turned away from them. "And right now that just has to be good enough."

Biting back an onslaught of her own rancid emotions the alien girl beside her could only nod in soft agreement.

While it was true that _they _were still alive, no one could find the stomach to dare mention the fact that Robin and Jericho had been lost during the first initial cave in.

And Cyborg had still been inside the building's core when the tower had collapsed.

So now as to whether any of them were alright... well it was anyone's guess.

Landing on the broken ledge that had been lucky enough to catch Batman's cable line Starfire quickly used her monstrous strength to pull the Dark Knight back up to safety.

"Thanks." The Caped Crusader gruffly muttered.

"I welcome you." Starfire replied with the ghost of a smile as she tried to dredge up hope from the tatters of her heart. Glancing at the tall, dark man who stood beside her Batman was now a cruel reminder of a boy Starfire feared she had lost.

"But what are we to do now?" The tan girl choked once she was sure her voice was strong enough.

"The air above us is still burning oxygen." Batman reasoned, "It won't be long before the high levels of carbon monoxide finish what Slade started. Since dying here isn't going to stop that bio-weapon, we need to find a way out."

"Anyone know exactly where here is?" Beast Boy asked as he stared up at the shattered remains of what used to be their tower. "I mean, it's hard to get your bearings straight when there's a gaping hole of death where the floor used to be!"

"We fell through the docking bay doors, remember?" Raven chimed in as she pieced together their surroundings, "Which means the T-ship should be directly above us. If we can reach it, we might have a chance."

"Yeah, that's _considering_ it hasn't been squashed to pieces!" The green teenager at her side moaned, "And that doesn't change the fact _we're_ still trapped down _here_!"

"You're never trapped." Batman corrected instantly cowing the smaller boy as he passed by him. Silently scanning the ceiling for any signs of weakness in the wreckage above the dark man added, "There's always a way out."

-Abandoned Factory-

Harley wasn't a patient person on even a normal day, but right now with the mixture of silence and tension in the air she was almost ready to go off the deep end. Hovering over Kid Flash the clown girl had made a nervous game out of rocking back and forth on her heels, trying to make as much noise as possible as she produced ear curdling creaks every time she moved.

Cringing every time that horrible sound cracked out of her shoes, Wally secretly wondered how mad Batman would be with him if he wound up breaking the girl's mallet over her head.

After all it sure worked in cartoons when you needed to shut someone up.

"Whatcha doing?" Harley finally asked as she saw the boy open a new window on the screen.

"'The same thing we do every night, Pinky...'" KF said sarcastically, "I'm trying to save our butts so you can stay in show business."

"Well what's that you're typing?" The girl continued.

"Stop talking, you're ruining my concentration." Came the red head's curt answer.

"'_I sit before the 'Mirror of Reason' asked to find the task that will make me my own master...'" _He trailed off repeating the hint one more time in desperate hope that something would click and suddenly make sense.

Scowling Harley hated it when the junior detectives tried to take Batman's tone. It was pretty hard to instill fear in the heart of any criminal when you weren't even old enough to shave.

Then it dawned on her what the kid was doing.

The dope was actually trying to search the Internet.

"Puleeeze!" She exclaimed yanking the keyboard away from him, "Tell me you're _not_ seriously gonna cross-reference Tweety Bird's kooky riddle through Google now are you?" Slamming her forehand with her palm the girl exclaimed, "That's just insulting you know! You gotta give us loons _some _credit! If people could just solve a riddle like this with a computer any nut job in jammies would be doing this line of work!"

"I don't care!" Kid Flash snarled as he pointed to the timer and the waning seconds till startup, "I'm _not_ Batman! And as long as it saves the world, I couldn't care less how lame it looks!"

"Man, Batsy really backed up the wrong pony when he picked you for this job." The girl shot back, "Knowing _you're_ the world's brilliant savior, well I ain't been this worried since the time Mistah J made me wear the Pinata suit."

"HARLEY! All this moral support you're giving me is _not_ helping!" Wally exclaimed ready to tear out his own hair, "Do me a favor and go wrangle up those flea bags that are lurking around here or something. Anything! Just something that doesn't involve _me_!"

"Yeesh. Somebody's sure _touchy."_ The girl scoffed storming off in a huff. "Well fine then. I know when I'm not wanted!" Grumbling Harley kicked up the dust clumps as she went, "Boy, kids today. Who does that skinning little twerp think he is? Getting his tights in a wad over a little honesty-"

Whatever else she had wanted to say died on her lips as the she spotted Titan's Tower through the window.

Or what was left of it.

Even miles from the coast, Titan's island was one of the easiest landmarks to point out anywhere in Jump City.

Only now the massive structure from it's steel frame to the rocky shore was nothing more than a blazing inferno.

Turning tail Harley instantly ran back into the room. "Sorry to burst your good mood, Slim. But think I got some more bad news for you." She stated yanking the injured boy by the hand and slamming him up against the same window pane she had just come from.

The color instantly draining out of Wally's face the boy didn't even have the strength to breathe as he stared out at the soot covered wasteland.

"It can't... _no_!" He finally managed to choke as the horrible picture was seared into his eyes. "There's no way they'd lose."

Titan's Tower couldn't fall.

The Titans would have all but surrendered their lives before they'd allow anyone to destroy their home.

Barreling forward the freckled teen was on the verge of panic as he turned to her, "I have to go help them, Harl! I have to-"

"Are you outta your skull?" The henchwench ordered grabbing the young man roughly by his shoulders. "The only thing you'd accomplish in your current condition outside of bleeding all over the joint would be bumping up the death toll."

"Let go of my hand, Harley." Kid Flash instantly challenged as a darkness etched across his normally gentle face. "You can't stop me."

"You're right, I can't." Harley said matter of factly, "But B-man trusted you with stopping things here, didn't he? And take it from me kid, that type of trust don't come easy." Gently she added, "I know it's hard but you'd be doing more good if you stay."

"But what about the others?" The youth cried out as his anger burnt out almost as quickly as his feet could move, "I mean, t-they could still be alive you know!"

"Of course they're still alive." She reassured him even though Harley didn't really believe it. "You don't think Bats is nice enough to do something that would make me _happy_ now do ya? He'd never drop dead over a little thing like a building falling on his head."

His own thoughts whirling Wally was only half listening to her as he tried to get a hold of himself, "Maybe I can call the other honorary Titans," He thought out loud, "Maybe they can..."

"Kid, listen to reason here! I mean you'd have to practically be Superman to make it there in enough time for it to count." The clown girl exclaimed.

That was it.

A light bulb clicking instantaneously the boy grabbed her shoulders. "I know you're probably not used to hearing this, but Harley you're a genius!" Kid Flash exclaimed as he became a blur and reached for his communicator.

Man... if Bruce wasn't dead, Wally was sure he was going to be murdered himself for doing this.

Because there wasn't _anything_ Batman hated more than when he had to be saved by Clark.

But right now Kid Flash didn't care.

He just wanted to know his friends were safe.

"JLA Emergency broadcast, this is Kid Flash!" The boy belted into the communicator as he changed frequencies.

Radio silence.

Finally a voice responded.

"Kid Flash, you should be aware that you are not authorized to use this channel-" Came Martian Manhunter's stern reply as the Watchtower linked the call.

"I know but this is life and death here, J'onn!" Wally cried out, "Bats and the Titans have been taken out and there's a large scale viral detonation that's about to commence any minute now! So if there are any fliers who can clear the west coast in oh say the next nine seconds-"

"THEN DO IT AND DO IT NOW!" Harley finished for him screaming into the device.

"Voice identified: Dr. Harleen Frances Quinzel. Known alias: Harley Quinn. Current fugitive of Arkham Asylum, with arrest warrants in 7 states. Diagnosed with histrionic personality disorder, a borderline sociopath with severe sado-masochistic tendencies." The League's computer O.M.A.C. analyzed from the behind J'onn, "Considered highly dangerous."

"Yeah, yeah. Oogah boogah, I'm really scary. But quit listening to your toaster and hear the kid out, E.T." The harlequin snapped, "Now I know it ain't like I've never pulled a double cross before, but just this once I swear I'm on your side. Besides Bats is one of your own isn't he? You aren't really gonna turn your back on him, are you? I mean what happened to all stuff about fighting for truth, justice and the right to wear underwear outside your pants?"

Mouth slacked as the blonde in the clown suit continued to tongue lash Martian Manhunter, Wally had to hand to it Harley. The dame was as loopy as breakfast cereal but man, she sure had spunk.

(Meanwhile...)

-Titan's Tower-

It took a lot to render Cyborg speechless.

And right now, there was no way he could have found the right thing to say even if his life had depended on it.

Which was sad because at this point pretty much _everyone's_ life depended on it.

Lying flat in his open palm the robotic youth just stared at the wireless detonator.

It... it was broken.

He had held salvation in his hand for less than thirty seconds only to have the final cave in snuff it out.

A detonator like this operated with what was called a kill switch on the handle. They were great for military use because the handle was electrically linked to a fail-safe that would immediately abort a mission should the operator be rendered dead or unconscious. All you had to was find the synapse rod which, when pushed down contacted the control's internal switch, instantly transmitting a wireless signal that cut off the power to any server it was attached to.

Crush one little rod and that was all it would have taken to stop the bio-weapon's missile computer.

Only fate seemed to favor this time that everything _but_ that rod had gotten crushed along the way.

Here the good guys had actually just been _given_ a detonator for once.

No back talk, no fight to the death, there hadn't even been much of an evil monologue on Rose's part.

This _one_ time things had actually started to look up.

And the damn thing was broken.

Burning a hole in the device Cyborg could only watch as it continued to short circuitr.

"Can you fix it...?" Rose asked as she watched his mouth gape open and closed like a dying fish.

"No," Cyborg answered his voice cracked as he forced himself out of his terror induced daze, "It would be like trying to put a Band-aid on a gun shot wound. The sensors are too damaged, you'd never be able to tell if the kill switch worked until _after_ we had already gotten out of here. By then if it hadn't... all those people would still be dead."

"Well, there's still the encryption code." The white haired girl offered. "Robin set up another kill switch on the super computer back at the factory. Just in case Slade tried to re-hack the system."

"You know it's pretty strange that Robin set up _two_ kill switches, especially for someone who's supposed to be trying to commit mass murder." The robotic teen muttered scratching his head, "It's like going crazy made him his own worst enemy. I don't even think _he_ knows what the heck it is he really wants."

Instead of answering him the child fingered the tattered make shift bandages Cyborg had made from her sleeves and traced the area around her left eye. "Say Mister Cyborg, do you know what my favorite part of the _Snow Queen_ is?" She suddenly asked changing the subject.

"Can't say I've read that one..." Cyborg trailed off as he had no idea where she was going with this.

"When the Mirror of Hell cracks two shards taint the soul of a boy named Kay." Rose explained, "Instantly the wonderful little boy he had been up until that moment dies, and from that day on his heart can only see ugliness. Because the boy becomes as cold and frozen as the very snow he catches the eye of the beautiful Snow Queen who kidnaps him and takes him to her castle at the end of the world. There Kay stays for endless nights, not knowing any joy nor sorrow as he's surrounded only by a icy wasteland that lays just as much inside him as it does around. But in the Snow Queen's castle there's also another large mirror called the Mirror of Truth that shows him pictures of the outside world he's forgotten. And even though he's too dead inside to understand why those images matter, Kay begins to long for the chance to see them again. So every day before she leaves the Snow Queen tells Kay that if he can answer one single riddle than she'll make him his own master and let him leave her palace. All he has to do is spell out a word that she has written somewhere out on the ice. But each day that passes Kay is unable to find the writing. Because with the glass shard in his eye he can only see the ugliness in things. So try as he might he's never able to see the huge letters the Snow Queen scrawled only inches away from his mirror. Freedom is staring him dead in the face but he's too blind to see it."

"That's a pretty lousy ending." The teen remarked.

"I never said it was the end. The _point_ is that Kay keeps looking for the writing. Even though he's cold and ugly on the inside, he still fights for something he can't understand." Glancing at the tall mechanical youth Rose reasoned, "Robin's the same way. Just because he doesn't understand _why_ he cares about you all doesn't mean it gets erased from his body. Feelings are more than just a connection, Mister Cyborg... they're a part of our humanity."

"That still doesn't really excuse him from trying to kill thousands of people, Rose." The older boy replied coldly.

"No, but feelings can also get twisted along the way." The white haired child chided, "Mine were just as crooked as Robin's were for a while. Because this is a world where there will always be boogeymen lurking in the dark, ready to prey on the weak. Nothing's ever going to change that unless someone is willing to send those creatures a message. And the only message monsters like that really understand are the kind that you carve into them with blood and misery." Giving Cyborg a frigid glare of her own she asked, "Can you really tell me that people like the Joker and Mr. Slade _deserve_ a life even after they've taken so many away? As heroic as you all are, you don't really stop monsters like them." Her good green eye narrowing she used his own words from earlier, "'You're just putting Band-Aids on gun shot wounds.'"

"Maybe we are." The older boy replied after a few seconds of silence, "But I also know that _I_ don't have the right to pass judgment on anyone like that. 'Because even at their ugliest... people aren't always what they do.'" Wistfully he turned to her and explained, "A spiky haired know it all I used to respect said that once."

Rose crossed her arms and could only agree to disagree with the hero. "No, that's where you're wrong. People are _exactly _what they do. But I'm not pretending to be as noble as you are. Or even as noble as he used to be. See whether I'm with you Titans or against you, the only thing I _am_ going to make sure of is that I'm never anyone's victim ever again. So you can keep your ideals, Mr. Cyborg. Because I know _mine _sure haven't helped me out any when I've needed them."

Gruffly turning away the robotic teen tried to keep a cool head as she berated his moral code. "Do you still remember the encryption code that Robin put on Slade's computer?"

Reverting back into the little girl that Cyborg knew she wasn't Rose flashed him a vibrant smile, "Well it's what I've been trying to tell you all along, silly! The password is the same one that Kay was looking for in the story."

"You just have to be able to see the writing on the wall."

(End Part 2/3)


End file.
